Large, round-bottomed bowl with retracting rim. The vessel has been smoothed on both sides, slipped, primed, painted and polished. The priming and painting are partially fragmented. The restored object has many breaks and flaws. The ceramic has a white-yellowish base colour, which is painted red, orange and black-brown. The rim is decorated on both sides with a black-brown band. On the outer wall there is a high, surrounding frieze consisting of rectangular pictorial fields. They are separated by vertical, black-brown bundles of lines grouped around an orange stripe. The pictorial sectors alternate between a chessboard-like decoration and an ornament made up of horizontal lines and bands. Two red bands running around the centre appear below the frieze. Red triangles and simple circles with a dot in the centre are attached to the lower band. The decoration seems to allude to the face of a cat-like creature. On the inside of the pottery there are two upright red bands running all the way round. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware. 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. The ceramics served as supra-regional trade goods. (Künne 2004)