Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Small bowl with retractable rim and stand ring. The object has an upright, vertical handle with a small, massive protome in the shape of a bird's head. Painted and applied decorations appear on the ceramic. The vessel was smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The priming and painting are partially eroded. The restored object has several breaks and flaws. The ceramic has a white-reddish base colour, which is painted black-brown, brown, red and orange on the outside of the vessel. The rim is decorated on both sides with a surrounding black-brown band. There are three rectangular pictorial fields on the vessel wall. The two opposing sectors have a wart-shaped appliqué in their centre, which probably represents an eye. Horizontal bands of different colours appear above and below the appliqués. The depictions appear to represent a highly stylised eye mask. The third panel shows a horizontal row of red and orange rhombuses with a black-brown dot in the centre. The vertical handle opposite has several knob-shaped overlays. The deep wall sections are decorated with surrounding black-brown and red bands. The base ring is painted black-brown. The inside of the bowl was primed red. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware. Cultural significance: the type was produced exclusively in the south of the Gran Nicoya region and traded to the Central Highlands and the Atlantic region of Costa Rica. The pottery is known both from burials and from settlement contexts. It was often associated with the Altiplano Policromo group (1350-800d.C.). (Künne 2004)
