Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalSmall, round stone plate with a flattened base. The object has a stand ring, which is connected to the plate by three upright, monkey-like figures. The sexless sculptures raise their arms and spread their legs. Their heads and hands touch the wall of the bowl. The figures are separated from each other by three vertical struts. The object has a break at the edge. There is a reddish colour residue on its rounded lip. The three supporting figures of the object are not identical. Ferrero (1975: 268, Ilus. II-68, II-69) depicts similar stonework from Guápiles and Las Mercedes (both Atlantic Lowlands). One of the objects found in Las Mercedes remained unfinished. Social significance: Snarskis interprets a related plate from the Costa Rican highlands as a ceremonial metate (1981: 213, photo 200). Holmes (1888: 29) and Stone (1977: 189, Fig. 259) understand the same forms as a depository for ritual offerings. Cultural significance: similar objects occur both in the Central Highlands and in the Atlantic Lowlands of Costa Rica (Stone 1977: 189, Fig. 259; Snarskis 1981: 213, photo 201). They can be made of volcanic rock or clay. Ceramics of the same form occur particularly in the Buenos Aires Policromo group (1550-1000d.C.). However, they also appear as red-lined ware (1550-1000d.C.), as brown ware (1550-800d.C.) and as monochrome objects with applied decoration (Lothrop 1926: 361f., Figs. 250c, 251a-d). (Künne 2005)
Cataloguing data
Depth: 15,4 cm
Width: 14,3 cm
Provenance and sources
Production
Collecting
Assignment to a curated holding:
American Archaeology
Information about the record
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