The name of this item is missing in its original language. If you know the name or have any comments, please use the form to get in touch with the institution that provided the data.
Clay bowl

Deep, three-legged bowl with legs designed as anthropomorphic creatures. Each leg has a narrow, vertical opening and a rattle ball. The object is smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and highly polished. The ceramic has a cinnamon-coloured base, which is painted black and red. The rim is decorated with a circumferential red band. On the outside of the object there is a circumferential, central frieze showing two intertwined bands. They appear to imitate textile or wickerwork. The inside of the wall is decorated with upright, circumferential bands and lines. A zoomorphic creature with a snake-like body appears in the base of the vessel. It has two triangular, opposite heads, a long, thin tongue and four legs. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware, two headed monster. Cultural significance: the ceramics of the Mora group were produced in north-west 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 variant has been documented both in burials and in settlement contexts. It does not occur in Nicaragua. (Künne 2004)

This content was machine-translated
Data Provider
Ethnologisches Museum
Show only fields containing data

Cataloguing data

Object type
Clay bowl
Dimensions
Öffnung: (Schale) 20,8 cm
Wandstärke: 0,65 cm
Objektmaß: 12,2 x 22,4 x 22,5 cm
Material/Technique
Sound
Current location
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Inventory number
IV Ca 41072

Provenance and sources

when
Policromo Medio (800 - 1350)
where
Costa Rica
Guanacaste [Provinz]
Santa Cruz [Kanton]
Santa Bárbara [Ort]

who
José Maria Velasco - Former Possessors

Information about the record

Legal status metadata
This content was machine-translated
2.1.1 / 7.1