Carved from a single piece of prestigious alabaster, the figure reflects the geometric style and pattern of contemporary funerary masks and architecture from Teotihuacan.

The eyes would have once been inlaid with shells or precious stones and the depression on the feline's back would have held the temple offering - some have conjectured that this may have included human hearts removed for ritual sacrifices.

[2] The feline figure was found by a labourer at the foot of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan in 1889.

It was initially offered to the Museo Nacional, but as they would not buy it, it was sold to an English traveller.

Only one other similar calcite statuette of a jaguar has been unearthed at the site, which is now in the Mexican national collection.