Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Small bowl with a rounded base and straight rim. The object has two bean-shaped handles on the rim, which are positioned opposite each other. The vessel has been smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The ceramic has a salmon-coloured primer, which is painted red and black on the outside of the object. A wide, black band runs along the rim. The wall and floor are decorated with two opposing, semi-circular pictorial fields. They show a horizontal, intertwined band that forms two loops. The red-lined motif is underlaid with a black background. The two semi-circular sectors are separated by a vertical, rectangular panel. It shows two vertical, red lines that are intertwined (guilloche motif). All image fields are separated from each other by wide red bands. The inside of the object is primed in dark red. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware, alligator motif, type A. Cultural significance: the Galo and Carrillo Policromo groups (800-500d.C.) represent the first truly polychrome ceramics produced in the Gran Nicoya region. Their design (shape, colouring, individual motifs) is strongly reminiscent of the Ulua Policromo group (950-550d.C.). (Künne 2004)
