Top view | Photographer: | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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Massive, anthropomorphic figure with an oversized, flattened head. The very small object cannot be set up. The ceramic was smoothed, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The object has a white-brownish base colour, which was painted black-brown and red. On the legs, body and head are fields with geometric motifs that imitate textile or wickerwork. The flattened head, overly prominent nostrils and a red mouth mask indicate a feline predator-like character of the creature depicted. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware. Cultural significance: the pottery of the Mora group was produced in the north-west of Costa Rica and traded to the Central Highlands and the Atlantic region of the country. It uses design elements (seated anthropomorphic figures with headdresses, mat motif, Kan cross) that are also known from the Maya ceramics (Copador group) of the Clásico Tardío (900-600d.C.). The anthropomorphic figures of the Guabal variant show greater representational schematism compared to the anthropomorphic sculptures of the zoned bicoloured pottery (Rosales Esgrafiado) and the Policromo Antiguo (Galo Policromo group). (Künne 2004)
