Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Large, three-legged bowl with a flattened base. Each leg has two narrow, vertical openings and a rattle ball. The object has been smoothed, sanded, primed, painted and polished on both sides. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The vessel has a glued break. The ceramic has a salmon-coloured undercoat, which was painted red and black-brown. There is a black band around the rim. The outside of the vessel wall is decorated with a circumferential frieze. It has a hatching consisting of diagonal red stripes. Each leg is decorated with two wide, horizontal red stripes. A red band appears on the inside of the object with a lower border. On the wall there is a surrounding frieze consisting of four panels. The opposing panels each show the same decoration. The main motifs consist of an isosceles cross and a bimorph creature with two opposing, triangular heads. A mammal-like creature appears in the base of the bowl, turning its head backwards. It has a long trunk (tongue?) and two oversized ears. The figure is reminiscent of the "jaguar motif" of the white-yellowish primed pottery. The base of the vessel is separated from the wall by a circumferential band with T-elements. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware, alligator pattern and two headed monster motive, type C. Cultural significance: the type is characterised above all by its salmon-coloured ground. It has been documented mainly in the valley of the Río Tempisque and occurs only rarely north of Bageces (Costa Rica). The variant is mainly known from burials. (Künne 2004)
