Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Three-legged, deep bowl with a curved base. The zoomorphic legs have a narrow, vertical opening and a rattle ball. The object has been smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed, painted and highly polished. The primer and paint are slightly eroded. The restored ceramic has several fractures and material replacements. The bowl has a white-yellowish base colour, which was painted red, orange, brown and black. On the inside of the bowl there is a high, surrounding frieze with stepped elements. On the wall are three central, avimorphic figures that appear to be moving in the same direction. Their bodies were designed as a rhombus and decorated with a swastika. The motifs are repeated as vessel legs. There is a bimorphic creature in the base of the bowl. It appears to consist of an anthropomorphic rider sitting on a mammal-like figure. The colour accentuation of the figures corresponds with each other. The outside of the object was decorated with a surrounding frieze that shows vertical lines, angular elements and dots. The frieze is bordered by horizontal red bands. There is another circumferential red band on the floor. Chronological significance: the down-to-earth, figurative decoration seems to indicate that the bowl was made in the 16th century. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware, plumed serpent, type B. Cultural significance: this type was produced exclusively in the south of the Gran Nicoya region. It stands out due to the colour range of its decoration, a fine line and the depiction of moving figures. The pottery is mainly known from burials. (Künne 2004)
