Eccentric – Mayan Culture

The eccentrics are one of the most original forms of Mayan art. These are objects made of hard rock, flint or obsidian. Unlike many other objects carved from the same rocks, they appear to have no practical use. Their function was probably ritual. There are multiple shapes: anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or geometric. Human or animal forms are represented in silhouette. The eccentrics made up of several silhouettes of the god K'awiil are among the most spectacular. The size of certain eccentrics, which end in a narrow extension, suggests that they could be fixed on a support, a wooden pole for example and would have served as scepters. The complexity of their manufacture is such that modern tailors have revealed to be incapable of reproducing them with the same finesse as the Mayan artisans. Archaeologists have found them in caches, most often at the foot of steles or stairs or in tombs, where they were placed as offerings in the classical period.