Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Small, deep bowl with a steep rim. The round-bottomed object has been smoothed, sanded and primed on both sides. Its exterior is painted and lightly polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The ceramic has a white-yellowish base colour, which is painted red, red-orange and black-brown on the outside of the vessel. The object is decorated on both sides by a red-orange band around the edge, to which two vertical bundles of black-brown lines are attached. They are complemented by two opposing vertical stripes that are coloured red-orange. All vertical lines meet at right angles at the base of the vessel. There is a red-orange circle in place of their intersection. There are bag-shaped protrusions on the two opposite, red-orange coloured verticals. The wall is also decorated with eight oblique, ribbon-shaped limb motifs. They are associated with round discs that form several circular structures. Irregular traces of a white-yellowish primer are visible on the inside of the pottery. Lehmann (1913) assigns the decoration to his "Chorotega style" and interprets the central motif as phytomorphic. Lothrop (1926) discusses the same pottery under Nicoya polychrome ware, plumed serpent, type E. 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 manifested itself in the replacement of lizard and bat themes with depictions of cats of prey and snakes. The pottery served as a supra-regional commodity. (Künne 2004)
