Baessler-Archiv,  Neue  Folge,  Band  XVII  (1969)

245

“MINIATURE”  AND  SMALL  STONE  ARTIFACTS
FROM  MESOAMERICA
STEPHAN  F.  DE  BORHEGYI,  Milwaukee*

In  a  recent  article,  Dockstader  (1968)  describes  and  illustrates  a  number  of
“miniature”  Mesoamerican  stone  objects  such  as  hachas,  yokes,  and  stone  “armguards”
  all  from  the  collections  of  the  Museum  of  the  American  Indian  in  New
York.  His  article  was  prompted  by  reports  of  this  author  (de  Borhegyi,  1961,
1966,  and  1967)  of  several  miniature  stone  objects,  yokes,  knee  yokes,  hachas,
horizontally  tenoned  ballcourt  markers,  mushroomstones,  metates  and  manos,
“toad  stone”  receptacles,  “doughnut  stones”,  and  star-shaped  stone  maceheads.
Dockstader  concludes  his  article  saying:  “until  more  of  these  curious  examples
turn  up  to  increase  our  understanding,  one  can  only  record  their  existence  and
anticipate  subsequent  evidence  which  hopefully  will  reveal  their  purpose.”
It  is  in  this  spirit  of  inquiry  that  I  thought  that  the  publication  of  some  new
evidence  relative  to  these  curious  miniature  stone  objects,  most,  if  no  all,
seemingly  related  to  the  ballgame  complex  of  ancient  Mesoamerica  will  be  in
order.
Since  1967  the  author  has  not  only  noted  several  miniature  and  small  stone
objects  in  various  museum  collections,  but  the  Milwaukee  Public  Museum  was
also  fortunate  to  obtain,  primarily  through  the  generous  donations  of  Mr.
Richard  P.  Herzfeld,  of  Milwaukee,  a  number  of  new  small  and  miniature
stone  hachas,  palmas,  and  massive,  crested  stone  heads.
*  The  writer  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  thanks  to  Mr.  Richard  P.  Herzfeld  of  Milwaukee, ­
  to  Drs.  Gordon  Ekholm,  Frederick  Dockstader,  Dieter  Eisleb,  Wolfgang
Haberland,  Otto  Zerries,  and  Ferdinand  Anton  for  their  many  helpful  suggestions
and  to  the  Völkerkunde  Museums  of  Berlin,  Hamburg,  Miinich,  and  Bremen  for
the  permission  to  use  the  photographs  of  the  objects  in  their  collections.  For  all
other  photos,  my  thanks  go  to  Mr.  Leo  Johnson,  Chief  Photographer  of  the  Milwaukee ­
  Public  Museum.  I  also  want  to  express  my  deepfelt  appreciation  to  the
Wenner-Gren  Foundation  for  Anthropological  Research,  to  the  National  Science
Foundation,  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  ICOM,  and  especially  to
Drs.  Götz  Fehr  and  Erhard  Jahn  of  the  German  Federal  Government  and  Inter
Nationes,  all  of  whom  made  my  various  trips  to  study  the  Pre-Columbian  collections ­
  in  the  West  German  museums  possible.

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