Front page | Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Bowl with a wide overhanging rim, straight wall and flat base. The object was smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and highly polished. The ceramic has a red-brown base colour, which is painted red and black-brown. The outer rim is decorated with a black-brown band around the edge. There are red lines running around the wall. Two semi-circular fields with scale-like motifs appear on the floor. The sectors are bordered by two bundles of red lines separated by a black and brown stripe. The inner edge is decorated by a surrounding frieze with stepped elements. A black and brown band runs along the wall. A lizard-like creature appears in the base of the bowl, depicted in side profile. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware, alligator motif, type A. Cultural significance: the pottery is known both from burials and from household contexts. It is related to the Mora Policromo group (1350-800d.C.). Similar lizard motifs are also known from the polychrome pottery (Buenos Aires Policromo, 1550-800d.C.) of the Gran-Chiriquí region. (Künne 2004)
