The figurines known as Mixtec penates were considered to have been ancestors by Post-Classic Mixtec groups to legitimize lineages and were deposited in tombs and burials at sites in Oaxaca. One of the raw materials most used for the elaboration of penates is variegated marble, which was likely obtained from the Mixteca area, probably close to Teposcolula in the Mixteca Alta. This has been inferred by the presence of hundreds of Mixtec penates made in variegated marble in that region. However, Mixtec plaques and pendants made of jadeite and variegated marble have also been recovered, representing dead figures with their eyes closed.

Penates are what all those stone figurines have been called with shades of green to white, rectangular or prismatic in shape, representing deities or men and that are presumed to be of Mixtec origin. There are even those who call basalt and ceramic sculptures from the Ñuiñe area penates, although they are of larger proportions. In addition to this, the name that Barbro Dahlgren and Eduardo Noguera assigned to them has been inappropriate, since "Penates" designate Greco-Roman domestic gods as they were found inside homes, although most of them recovered in later works come from ceremonial and non-domestic contexts. .

The figurines identified as penates are rectangular figurines of marbled green stone, representing figures in a seated position and with the arms crossed at their chest, most of the time with facial attributes of Tlaloc or of simple human beings.

This anthropomorphic jadeite pendant has an irregular surface, a convex face, as well as oblique sides. It displays incised designs of anatomical parts and a transverse tubular perforation that crosses the neck from side to side. Given its position, seated with the arms crossed and eyes closed, it is probably a dead or ancestral figure. Its probable style would correspond to the Mixtec of Oaxaca in the era of the late Post-Classic period, since its lapidary technology corresponds to grinding with basalt, incision and cutting with obsidian, perforations with flint and flint dust and finishes with flint nodules. .

The piece displays all the characteristics of the Mixtec penates recovered in Yagul, Monte Alban and Zaachila. These penates represent dead figures, as they have their eyes closed. These types of figurines are mostly small, they do not exceed 10cm in height and the raw materials used for their manufacture are jadeite, green stone and shell. The shape of the eyelids and some rotary grindings are made using semicircles.