Hacha in the Shape of Bound Hands 4th–7th century Veracruz This sculpture, made of volcanic stone, takes the form of two larger-than-life-size hands with clenched fists. The hands are placed back to back, with fingers facing outward. On each side, fingers descend to the palm in an even line, while incised lines delineate the pad of the palm and the joints of the thumb. Although the hands look naturalistic, the artist has chosen to stress uniformity and symmetry rather than depict the irregularities of human hands; the pinkies and thumbs, for example, bend toward the palms in an exaggerated “U”

Hacha in the Shape of Bound Hands 4th–7th century Veracruz This sculpture, made of volcanic stone, takes the form of two larger-than-life-size hands with clenched fists. The hands are placed back to back, with fingers facing outward. On each side, fingers descend to the palm in an even line, while incised lines delineate the pad of the palm and the joints of the thumb. Although the hands look naturalistic, the artist has chosen to stress uniformity and symmetry rather than depict the irregularities of human hands; the pinkies and thumbs, for example, bend toward the palms in an exaggerated “U” shape rather than at distinct joints. This work is an “hacha,” a type of sculpture associated with the ballgame in ancient Mesoamerica. Named after the Spanish term for “axe,” hachas are representations of gear worn in the ballgame. Imagery from Veracruz and the Maya area depicts ballplayers wearing hachas on top of yokes, U-shaped stone objects worn around the waist (see MMA and MMA ). The indentation or “notch” on the back of this hacha is slightly concave and marks the place where the hacha would have been attached to a yoke, presumably with cloth or rope binding. Together, the stone yoke and hacha would have weighed so much that scholars presume they were ceremonial in nature, perhaps stone versions of cloth or wood originals worn in actual play. Hachas are a distinctive form associated with art from the Classic Veracruz culture, which flourished along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico between 300 and 900. In addition to appearing in Veracruz iconography, hachas have been recovered from archaeological excavations, where they were discovered with yokes in elite tombs. Over the course of the Classic period (ca. 300–900) in Veracruz, artists began to create hachas that were more slim and blade-like; the term “hacha” refers to these later iterations (see MMA for an example of a blade-like hacha). In some parts

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