Pre-Columbian, Central America, Panama, Gran Cocle, Macaracas type, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A hand-built pottery pedestal dish of an attractive form featuring a myriad of abstract zoomorphic creatures in the basin known as saurians. The composition exhibits a broad foot, a tapered pedestal neck with a trio of arrow-shaped cut-outs, and a wide, shallow basin with a thick rim. Highly burnished and presented in hues of coral, jet black, and amethyst atop a cream ground, the vessel is decorated with large diamond and triangular forms on the foot and pedestal as well as chromatically alternating bars along the rim. The basin bears 8 separated triangular panels outlined with thick black bars, each containing an abstract reptilian 'saurian' creature with slender claws, discoid eyes, sinuous bodies, and huge mouths filled with fangs. Size: 10.125" W x 7.2" H (25.7 cm x 18.3 cm)
According to scholar Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, "The Gran Cocle culture is a Pre-Columbian archaeological culture that gets its name from the area from which it was based, the now present-day Cocle province of Panama. The Gran Cocle term applies to a loosely studied group of Native American sub-cultures in this region, identified by their pottery styles. The overall period spans a time from 150 B.C. to the end in the 16th century A.D. upon Spanish contact. The most ancient culture is the La Mula period from 150 B.C. to 300 A.D. The La Mula and later Monagrillo and Tonosi pottery styles are identified by their use of three paint colors which were black, red and white (or cream). The later Cubita style saw the emergence of the use of four colors. The styles of Conte, Macaracas and Joaquín added purple to their palette and this hue ranged from grayish tones to red purple. The use of purple disappeared in the subsequent styles of Parita and El Altillo and the paint style reverted to the use of three colors. Most notable in the artistic renderings are the overt use of geometric designs." (For more information, see Armand Labbe, "Guardians of The Life Stream: Shamans, Art and Power in Prehispanic Central Panama." Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, University of Washington Press, 1995)
Provenance: ex-Stein collection, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, acquired prior to 2010
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#164086
Condition
Professionally repaired from over a dozen pieces, with restoration along break lines of repaired areas, and resurfacing with overpainting along new material and break lines. Abrasions and small nicks to rim, basin, foot, and pedestal, with light encrustations within pedestal cut-outs, and minor fading to scattered areas of original pigment. Nice remains of original pigment and great mineral deposits throughout.