The Teotihuacan Ocelot or ''Teotihuacán Ocelot'' is the name of an alabaster sculpture of a feline found at the ancient

Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

site of Teotihuacan, central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Discovered in the late nineteenth century, it was purchased by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in 1926.

Description

This unique sculpture is an offering vessel in the form of a recumbent

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted Felidae, wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, Central and South America, ...

. Carved from a single piece of prestigious

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

, the figure reflects the

geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

style and pattern of contemporary funerary masks and architecture from Teotihuacan. The eyes would have once been inlaid with shells or precious stones and the depression on the feline's back would have held the temple offering - some have conjectured that this may have included human

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

s removed for ritual sacrifices.British Museum Highlights

Provenance

The feline figure was found by a labourer at the foot of the

Pyramid of the Sun The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest building in Teotihuacan, and one of the largest in Mesoamerica. It is believed to have been constructed about 200 AD. Found along the Avenue of the Dead, in between the Pyramid of the Moon and the Ciudadela ...

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

in 1889. It was initially offered to the Museo Nacional, but as they would not buy it, it was sold to an English traveller. The sculpture was eventually bought by the British Museum in 1926, with support from the Christy Fund. Only one other similar calcite statuette of a

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

has been unearthed at the site, which is now in the Mexican national collection.

Bibliography

*C. McEwan, Ancient Mexico in the British Museum (London, The British Museum Press, 1994) *C. Berlo (ed.), Art, ideology and the city of Teotihuacan: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8 and 9 October 1988 (Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1992) *K. Berrin and E. Pasztory (eds.), Teotihuacan: Art from the city of the gods (Thames and Hudson, 1993) *E. Pasztory, Teotihuacan: an experiment in living (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997)

References

{{reflist Artefacts from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the British Museum Mesoamerican artifacts Ethnographic objects in the British Museum Teotihuacan 1889 archaeological discoveries Sculptures in the British Museum Mexico–United Kingdom relations