Vessel with Butterfly Headdress

The headdress shown on this vessel combines a serpent's mouth with a butterfly's proboscis (feeding tube), which curls between the eyes. The butterfly often appears in the headdress of the Great Goddess, an extremely important Teotihuacán deity. Stucco (paper-thin, painted plaster) is fragile and usually does not survive well; the stucco of the basin in this case has been repaired.