turtle & peccary of Orion

rams head

sun           pumas           moon
                                                 
  sun                           moon  
The illustrations are copies of glyphs drawn by Linda Schele
in the book Maya Cosmos, pages 205 and 243.

The artifact ORC#4OR-as01 is a ground-stone slate or volcanic vitrified black sand, which has a high iron content and gives the artifact its rusty color.  Its dimensions are 6cmX4cmX1cm (2.25inX1.75inXx0.375in).  The artifact is one of the best examples of polymorphism, because there are five zoomorphic forms represented, two pumas, a turtle, a peccary, and a rams head.  This broad tip projectile point has been classified under astronomy instead of hunting for the following reasons. The turtle and the peccary (a pig like animal native to the Southwest and Central America) are two zoomorphic representations for the Maya constellations in the star group we call Orion.  The Maya images for both the sun glyph and the moon glyph are also a part of their art. The projectile point was found during a gardening project near Oregon City, Oregon.