(1137EHA) $195

Description

Small solid clay earthenware terracotta figures have been found in many Majapahit period sites and were finished with carved or incised decorations. The powerful Majapahit Empire spanning the 13th-16th centuries was Hinduism based, centered on the island of Java and extended from present-day Indonesia to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Southern-Thailand, and the Philippines. Trowulan was the empire’s capital and is now an archaeological site in the Indonesian province of East Java. It is considered to be one of the greatest Southeast Asian empires in history. Many Majapahit buildings were decorated with intricate deeply carved bas-reliefs and other decorative elements portraying Javanese folklore and stories from the Hindu Sanskrit epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata.  In the 2nd half of the 20th century, terracotta artifacts were unearthed in East Java near the Empire’s capital as the result of road building and agricultural activities. Some scholars believe these figures were used as effigies and decapitated as part of religious offerings, while others feel they were secular objects that were discarded when they were broken. This head is likely a fragment from a terracotta frieze. It is part of the VA Hindu-Cultural-and-Ritual Art Collection.

Sources

Soedarmadji J H Darmais, Majapahit Terracotta, 2012, p. 88, BAB Publishing