Lot 71

Pre-Columbian Taino Greenstone Trigonolith Zemi / Pounder

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Lot 71
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Pre-Columbian Taino Greenstone Trigonolith Zemi / Pounder
Pre-Columbian Taino Greenstone Trigonolith Zemi / Pounder
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Pre-Columbian Taino Greenstone Trigonolith Zemi / Pounder

Estimate: $1,400 - $2,000

Current Bid: $700

(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, Greater Antilles, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A dense, hand-sized lozenge of mottled greenstone carved into the characteristic three-pointed silhouette of a Taino trigonolith, its surface burnished to a soft sheen against passages left rough and granular by tool and time. The dorsal ridge rises to a central peak, flanked by two opposed projections that lend the form its taut, almond profile, the body suffused with veins of ochre, charcoal, and pale celadon where the stone has weathered. Shallow grooves articulate what may once have read as brow, jaw, or limb, abstracted to near-geological reticence. The underside is markedly abraded and pitted, suggesting that this object served, at least at some point in its life, as a percussive implement (a pounder or pestle) before or alongside any role within the cemi cult.

Among the Taino of the Greater Antilles, trigonoliths or three-pointer stones counted among the most potent of zemis, the embodied spirits that mediated between the living and the unseen. The classic form, with its conical apex and twin lateral protrusions, was buried in the conucos to coax the growth of yuca, invoked in cohoba rites by the behique, and kept within the household as guarantor of fertility, rain, and ancestral favor. That this example couples its ceremonial geometry with the worn, working underside of a utilitarian tool speaks to the porous boundary in Taino practice between the sacred and the quotidian, where a stone of the right shape and gravitas might serve both the hearth and the spirit world. Size: 5.8" W x 4.7" H x 3.6" D (14.7 cm W x 11.9 cm H x 9.1 cm D).

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

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Item # 203228

  • Condition: Good. Weathering with pitting and abrasions as shown, all commensurate with age. Underside is heavily abraded. Otherwise, intact and very nice with liberal 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