Lot 44

Taino Carved Stone Trigonolith Zemi - Zoomorphic Head

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Lot 44
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Taino Carved Stone Trigonolith Zemi - Zoomorphic Head
Taino Carved Stone Trigonolith Zemi - Zoomorphic Head
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Taino Carved Stone Trigonolith Zemi - Zoomorphic Head

Estimate: $1,600 - $2,250

Current Bid: $800

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Pre-Columbian, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A dense, dark stone trigonolith carved into the iconic three-pointed silhouette of the Taino zemi, its polished volcanic surface drinking the light. The conical apex rises sharply from a sinuous horizontal axis, terminating at one end in a zoomorphic head, perhaps a stylized canine or reptilian creature, with a tapered snout and softly modeled brow, and at the opposite end in folded limbs tucked beneath the body. A natural calcite vein traces a pale diagonal across the polished mass, evidence of the stone's geological history and a reminder that Taino lapidaries often chose materials whose internal patterning would reveal itself only through patient abrasion.

Trigonoliths, called cemies or zemies by the Taino of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the surrounding Antilles, embodied ancestral and elemental spirits and were among the most potent ritual objects in the Greater Antillean world. Chroniclers such as Ramon Pane, who lived among the Taino at the close of the fifteenth century, recorded that these three-pointed stones were buried in conucos, the raised agricultural mounds, to ensure the fertility of yuca and other staple crops. Others were kept in caciques' houses or in sacred caves, anointed, fed, and consulted in cohoba ceremonies. The form itself, a mountain flanked by a head and haunches, is sometimes read as a compressed cosmogram fusing earth, animal, and ancestor.

The choice of a zoomorphic terminal here aligns the object with the broader Antillean repertoire of spirit-animals: dogs, bats, turtles, and frogs that mediated between the living and the world of the opias, the dead. Worked with stone abraders and finished to a soft sheen, the piece carries the quiet authority of an object meant to be held, fed, and addressed by name. Size: 5" W x 4.6" H x 9.3" D (12.7 cm W x 11.7 cm H x 23.6 cm D).

Provenance: ex-private collection, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, USA, collected from 2010 to 2015

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Item # 198370

  • Condition: Very Good. Stable stress fissure with infill across body. Some area of nicks and chipping as shown, all commensurate with age. Otherwise, intact and very nice with good remaining detail.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000