Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Hollow, avimorph head protome with wall attachment. There are three small, oval openings on the beak of the depicted creature. The object has been smoothed and polished on both sides. Its exterior is primed, painted and lightly polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The fragment has a white-yellowish base colour, which was painted black-brown and red-orange on the outside of the object. The largely realistic protome represents a bird of prey with a hump on its beak. Several red colour spots appear on the head. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware, animal effigy vessel. Cultural significance: according to Snarskis (1983: 65) and Lange (2003, pers. comm.), the Pataky group displaced Papagayo pottery in the Gran Nicoya region between 1250 and 1150d.C.. Their decoration shows a strong Mesoamerican influence. According to Lothrop (1926), the diagnostic motifs consist of the "silhouette jaguar, type B" and the "plumed serpent, type C". They are also known from folding books made in the Postclassic Mixteca-Puebla style (1520-1200d.C.). The group occurs mainly in burials. Similar protomes are also known from the Papagayo Policromo (1350-800d.C.), Ulua Policromo (950-550d.C.) and Tohil-Plumbat pottery (1200-950d.C.) groups. (Künne 2004)
