Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Small zoomorphic vascular flute depicting a seated monkey. The instrument has an inflated body with four finger holes and a mouthpiece. It has been smoothed, sanded, primed, scored and polished. The primer is partially eroded. The ceramic has a brown base colour. The object depicts a seated (howler?) monkey with one hand resting on its swollen, barrel-shaped body. With the other hand, it grasps its wide-open mouth. According to Lothrop 1926: chocolate ware and chocolate and orange-brown ware figurines. Cultural significance: pottery of supra-regional distribution, produced in periods VI (1550-1000d.C.) and V (1000-500d.C.) in the Central Highlands, on the Atlantic Slope and in the Diquís region. Similar figures appear as sculptural applications in historical stone cist ware. The "Huaca de La Vírgen" site originally yielded 101 objects, 42 of which were made of metal. (Künne 2004)
