Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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Large wall sherd. The fragment has been smoothed, slurried and primed on both sides. Its exterior is painted in polychrome. The paint and primer are partially eroded. Objects IV Ca 48830a-e belong to different objects. The fragment has a white-yellowish base colour, which is painted red-orange and black-brown on the outside of the object. The pottery was decorated with a snake motif. The visible depiction shows an oval element that belongs to the body of the reptile. The segment is filled by a cross-grid and is associated with three parallel, red-orange stripes. After Bransford (1881): Sta. Helena ware. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya polychrome ware, plumed serpent. Cultural significance: supra-regional trade goods. 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 (cf. Codex Borgia 1992: 46; Codex Zouche-Nuttall 1992: 31). It manifests itself, among other things, in the replacement of lizard and bat themes by depictions of cats of prey and snakes. The variant is known both from burials and from settlement contexts. It has been documented above all in Guanacaste and has appeared since the second half of the Policromo Medio (1350-800d.C.). For the symbolic meaning see also: Seler 1907: 15 f.; Taube 1994: 77-86 (Künne 2004).
