Photographer: | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Fragment of a massive, anthropomorphic head that probably belonged to a seated figure. The pottery was smoothed, slurried, primed, painted and polished. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The object has a white-brownish base colour, which is painted black and red. It belongs to a bimorph sculpture with large, almond-shaped eyes and a red mouth mask. According to Lothrop 1926: highland polychrome ware. Cultural significance: the ceramics of the Mora group were produced in the north-west of Costa Rica and traded to the Central Highlands and the Atlantic region of the country. It uses design elements (seated anthropomorphic figures with headdresses, mat motif, Kan cross) that are also known from the Maya ceramics (Copador group) of the Clásico Tardío (900-600d.C.). The anthropomorphic figures of the Mora group show greater representational schematism compared to the anthropomorphic sculptures of the zoned bicoloured pottery (Rosales Esgrafiado) and the Policromo Antiguo (Galo Policromo group). (Künne 2004)
