Kunze Axe

 Both images taken of the "Kunz Axe" from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

This exquisite ceremonial object is currently on loan to the American Museum of National History in New York city. The ax is carved from decorative jade. The enlarged head seems to indicate the creator wanted put special emphasis on the anthropomorphic face that seems to resemble that of a feline of some kind, knowing the reverence many precolonial meso-american cultures had for jaguar I would wager that it what it is meant to resemble. Notice the carving on the torso. The two hands are grasping what seems to be some kind of knife pointing down in a way that resembles the downward thrusting motion of a ceremonial knife into the intended sacrifice.

This ritualistic ax was first described in 1890 George Fredrick Kunz, from which the artifact gets its name. The Kunz Axe depicts a figure as a half man half jaguar. Such figures are very common in the artistic works of the Olmec culture and is commonly referred to by anthropologists and archaeologists as the werejaguar. It is commonly believed the the werejaguar is most likely a depiction of an Olmec god. Given the prevalence of this figure throughout the Olmec culture it can be assumed the god in question must have been an important one.

Sources:https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/hall-of-mexico-and-central-america/kunz-axe, https://uncoveredhistory.com/mexico/the-olmec-children-of-the-were-jaguar/