Olmec
Mexico
Seated figure with harpy eagle crest, 1000–500 B.C.
Ceramic, black bitumen
12 3/8 x 9 1/8 x 7 inches
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, The Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 80.327

Although figures like this one seem to represent babies with their plump, rounded features and chubby bodies, they likely had a deeper symbolic meaning to their Olmec creators. Indicator of this special status are the harpy eagle crest headdress and earspools worn by this figure. Potentially high-status objects, these ceramics have been found over a wide area and must have been traded over great distances. Their exact significance is unknown, but may be an idealized representation of the creation of humans by the gods, of supernatural half-human, half-jaguar creatures, or of fertility figures.