{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[{"id":2035656,"period":"Late Preclassic"},{"id":2035666,"period":"Early Classic"},{"id":2035751,"period":"Olmec"}],"creditline":"Museum purchase","caption":"Maya, Late Formative Period or Early Classic Period, 400 BCE–600 CE, Petén, Maya area, Guatemala, Mesoamerica, Chahk wielding a lightning axe. Fuchsite with traces of stucco and cinnabar; 13.3 × 7.1 × 10.1 cm. 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Fuchsite with traces of stucco and cinnabar; 13.3 × 7.1 × 10.1 cm. Museum purchase (y1990-74)","displaydate":"400 BCE–600 CE","medium":"Fuchsite with traces of stucco and cinnabar","media":[{"id":22648,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_DET2","isprimary":0,"rank":4,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":22649,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_DET3","isprimary":0,"rank":5,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":22650,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_DET5","isprimary":0,"rank":7,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":22651,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_DET4","isprimary":0,"rank":6,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":22652,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_OBL","isprimary":1,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":22653,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1990-74_DET1","isprimary":0,"rank":3,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"}],"displayperiod":"Late Formative Period or Early Classic Period","extended_content":false,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 118 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"Bryan R. Just. \"Mysteries of the Maize God\", <em>Record of the Princeton University Art Museum </em>68 (2009): 2–15.","citation":"Bryan R. Just. \"Mysteries of the Maize God\", <em>Record of the Princeton University Art Museum </em>68 (2009): 2–15., figs. 8a, b, p.7","date":2009,"id":1362,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/25747104"},{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1990,\" <EM>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </EM>50, no. 1 (1991): p. 16-69.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1990,\" <EM>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </EM>50, no. 1 (1991): p. 16-69., p. 64 (illus.), p. 66","date":1991,"id":1866,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774743"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[{"id":12493,"period":"Formative Period","alphasort":"Formative Period","begindate":-1800,"enddate":200,"displayperiod":"Late Formative Period or Early Classic Period","displaydate":null}],"department":"Art of the Ancient Americas","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199317,"term":"Art of the Ancient Americas","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1-500","dateend":600,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Chahk wielding a lightning axe","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"y1990-74","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"<p>\n\tOctober 6, 1990, sold by an anonymous dealer to the Princeton University Art Museum [1].\n</p>\n<p>\n\tNotes:\n\t<br />\n\t[1] According to an invoice in the curatorial file\n</p>","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"The large, swirling eyes and scalloped eyebrows of this figure identify him as Chahk, the Maya god of rain and storms. Here he crouches with his arms over his shoulders, hoisting an axe in the form of the head of K’awiil, the embodiment of a supernatural force associated with royal ancestral power and, in this case, lightning, cocked and ready for a powerful strike. Among the Maya, the crack of lightning was conceptualized as a strike of Chahk’s axe on the earth. A cluster of glyphic elements incised atop the deity’s head identify him as one specific aspect of this complex deity. Although several of these small stone sculptures of Chahk are known, their particular function remains a mystery.\n","remarks":"AAA2_20-T6-2_CLA_FA_9_17_25.pdf - Day 1 installation"}],"datebegin":-400,"sortnumber":"1990   74y","published_date":"2026-02-11 10:34:39.967053","objectid":33371,"dimensions":"13.3 × 7.1 × 10.1 cm (5 1/4 × 2 13/16 × 4 in.)","on_view":true}