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Ear ornaments were used throughout Mesoamerica, their individual shapes varying according to the conventions or preferences of the group that wore them. This particular example shows graceful five-petal flowers. The "L"-shaped appendix would have been inserted through the ear, so that only the flower shape showed.




Floral "L"-shaped ear ornaments
Maya
Classic period (300-900 A.D.)
Reforma, State of Tabasco
Shell
5.5 cm.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

Photo © Jorge Pérez de Lara