“Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine”

“Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine”

• Tequixquiac, Mexico (Mexico City)

• Artist: prehistoric people

• 14,000–7,000 B.C.E. (Prehistoric, Paleolithic)

• Material: A camelid (part of the camel family) sacrum (large triangular bone at the base of the spine)

Content: Holes were cut to the end of  the bone to represent nostrils, and the bone is also engraved. Looks to be a carved canine skull.

Function: looking through the lens of Mesoamerican cultures, one anthropologist has pointed out that the sacrum is seen as sacred and that some Mesoamerican indigenous languages named this bone with words referring to sacredness and the divine. The bone is also located near the reproductive organs.