Head
Life Story
This head shows no signs of having been attached to a body, although it is similar in size to heads of sandstone figures from mounds in Georgia and Tennessee which date to the Mississippian period (see Brose et al., 1985: pls. 139-40; Fundaburk and Foreman, 1957: pl. 97). It is flattened in shape and the back is slightly dished, with a shallow depression in the centre. The stone is darker in some areas than others, and the nose, formerly more prominent, has been damaged. The mound context in which it was found suggests it accompanied a burial, and it may have been a memorial head connected with the ancestor cult of the Mississippian period.
Steven Hooper, 1997
Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) pp. 302-303.
Provenance
Note in the Sainsbury Centre archives suggesting the object was taken from a mount in Greenup County, Kentucky before 1877.
Formerly in the Matatuk Museum, Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Purchased by the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia from Jonathan Holstein, New York, on the advice of Robert Sainsbury in 1982 out of funds provided by the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Art Trust.
Not on display
Title/Description: Head
Measurements: h. 165 x w. 158 x d. 80 mm
Inscription: 'Greenapsburg Co. From a mound, Kentucky. Cast of this in National Museum, Washington, D.C.'
Accession Number: 810
Historic Period: Mississippian (c. 1200-1500)
Credit Line: Purchased with support from the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Art Trust, 1982
