The carved stone images Olmec kings wore on their foreheads and chests projected supernatural power. This pendant carved in the shape of a hummingbird would have originally been suspended from a necklace by the two smaller drilled holes at the neck of the figure. Objects such as these often accompanied the king on his journey through death to the otherworld.

Elaine Higgins Smith, Digital Collections Content Coordinator, 2015.

Adapted from

Carol Robbins, Label text [1968.20], A. H. Meadows Galleries, 2010.