Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Rim sherd of a bowl. The fragment was smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The fragment has a white-yellowish base colour, which is painted red-orange and black-brown. The outside of the object is decorated with two horizontal bands below the rim, which are coloured red-orange. On the inside of the sherd is an ornamental band on the lower edge consisting of interlocking triangles. Below this are two vertical, horizontal, black-brown lines. A snake-like motif is attached to the lower line. The creature has an open maw and a coiled body. The dotted, unfinished figure appears as an outline and is surrounded by a red-orange coloured area. A deep black-brown line and two red-orange bands complete the decoration. Fragments IV Ca 47904 j and IV Ca 47904 m belong to different objects. Cultural significance: the objects of the Papagayo Policromo group represent the beginning of polychrome painting on a white-yellowish ground in the Gran Nicoya region. The tradition lasted until the Policromo Tardío (1350-1520d.C.). Their decoration shows a strong Mesoamerican influence. This manifested itself in the replacement of lizard and bat themes with depictions of cats of prey and snakes. The pottery served as a supra-regional commodity. The Alfredo variant is characterised by black-brown and red-orange bands running around it. (Künne 2004)
