Mayan or Tourist trinket?

[Shrinkmj]

Hi all! I was wondering if any of you knew anything about this. I could not find anything on the internet.

We were on a cruise a few years back and we were walking down the street on Roatan Island, Honduras, going into shops near the port terminal. In one of them, I saw three carved jadite pieces. They all were busts/heads. The seller said he finds them on the beach, and they are Mayan. I didn't really believe him, but for the price (I think I convinced him of $20), I thought it was kinda cool, and someone put some work into it!

I bought the nicest one. Here it is. Anyone know anything about it?

It doesn't stand up by itself, so I show it in the display box, stuck on modeling clay. Probably a dumb move if it's real, but I doubted it's authenticity.

[joshuaream]

My initial impression is that the carving doesn't look quite right, but the hair braids and loops are typical of Honduras and I wouldn't expect to see them on a tourist copy...

A lot of times pieces like that are obviously right/wrong, but yours is somewhere in the middle...

[DesertWalker]

Kinda reminds me of the imported folk art from the 1960s.

[Cannonman17]

Hmm. I don't know for sure either but my instinct says not old.

[Buckeye]

Looks modern, what would be the purpose of having the base made like that with the indentation?
Pretty neat either way.

[Flyjunkie]

It's Modern.. because The Government takes a strong dislike to Folks buying their History and carting it back home..
I have seen Items like that in Baja.. but one certainly knows it's Modern...

However those mini statues are probably made by the Local Indians.. So They are Mayan thought not from the Ancient times

[Shrinkmj]

I was thinking it was probably some local's creation. It looks as though it was carved to make it as big as possible with the amount of good material that was there in that particular stone. I think that's why it's oddly shaped, and why it doesn't stand up on it's "base". I'm really not sure the Honduran government had any idea he was selling this out of his shack to a tourist, though!

Speaking of the base, do yu suppose he was trying to make it look like it fit on the end of a staff?

[joshuaream]

Trying to maximize size from the rock is pretty typical in meso-american art, many ear spools and figurines have a minor rough edge or odd shape because they were going for the largest thing possible with the material. Often I'll see pieces grade as an 8 or so on a COA because of a 'ding' or rough spot, when it was really just made that way and is absolutely correct for the type.

Some people look at it the other way and say the material was usually so hard that they removed as little as necessary.

If it were going on a staff they probably just would have drilled it like they did their club/mace heads.