Photographer: Andrea Blumtritt | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Deep, round-bottomed bowl. The object has a deep rim and a high, slightly concave wall. The ceramic was smoothed, slurried, primed, painted and polished on both sides. The primer and paint are partially eroded. The vessel shows signs of breakage and flaws. The ceramic has an orange-brown base colour, which is painted black and red. The object is decorated on both sides with a red band around the rim. There is a circumferential frieze on the outside of the vessel wall, which shows "Kan crosses" and vertical line bundles. The bowl is also decorated with three deep, circumferential black lines. The uppermost line has a line decoration. A circumferential red band appears at the rim. On the inside of the vessel wall there are several black lines running around the lower edge. The uppermost line has a dotted line decoration. Symbolic meaning: Lothrop (1926) interprets "Kan crosses" as stylised snake eyes. In classic Maya iconography, the same motifs are often associated with sky bands. According to Lothrop 1926: Nicoya 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 representational elements (seated anthropomorphic figures with headdresses, mat motif, Kan cross), which are also known from the Maya ceramics (Copador group) of the Clásico Tardío (900-600d.C.). The variant has been documented both in burials and in settlement contexts. Lange (1971) links the Mora pottery with the Bramadero Policromo type (1520-1200d.C.), which occurs in the Policromo Tardío (1520-1350d.C.). (Künne 2004)
