Small, neckless vessel. The object has a domed base, a central rim and a strongly retracting wall. It is decorated with two opposing head and tail protomes. The pottery is smoothed and slipped on both sides. Its exterior was primed, painted and polished. Painting and priming are partially eroded. The vessel has a white-yellowish base colour, which is painted black and red. There is a black band around the rim. Two opposing, trapezoidal pictorial fields appear on the shoulder. Their motifs show squares in which there are several dots. Each panel is bordered by a wide black band. The opposing empty fields are decorated with two vertical, zoomorphic protomes. The border is painted red. Symbolic meaning: Holmes (1888: 183) and MacCurdy (1911) refer to discs, trapezoids and squares with dots in their centre as scale or alligator motifs. However, the same decorations also occur in other animal groups. According to Holmes 1888: alligator ware. According to Lehmann: Chiriquí style. Cultural significance: Stone (1958: 48) reports that objects of this type were associated with iron objects in a burial. She therefore assumes that these ceramics were still being produced in the Diquís region (Pacífico Sur) after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. (Künne 2004)