Photographer: | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Avimorphic, hollow head protome with wall attachment. There are two small openings on the beak of the depicted creature. The object has been smoothed and sanded 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 depicts a crooked-billed creature with a hump on its beak. There is a small, knob-shaped attachment on the top of the skull. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware, animal effigy vessel. 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.). Its decoration shows a strong Mesoamerican influence. This manifests itself in the replacement of lizard and bat themes by depictions of cats of prey and snakes. Similar protomes are known from the groups Pataky Policromo (1350-1000d.C.), Ulua Policromo (950-550d.C.) and from the Tohil-Plumbat pottery (1200-950d.C.). Some variants of the Papagayo group reached the central Mexican highlands. (Künne 2004)
