Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A wonderful set of 2 hand-built pottery female figures from ancient West Mexico. First is a mostly flat figure of a woman who stands on two wide feet. She wears a skirt, bracelets, headband, and, on a prominent and pointed nose, a large nose ring. Her hands are on her hips, giving her a delightfully sassy appearance. Second is a seated figure with ample thighs, curved arms, and an elongated head bearing impressed eyes and mouth as well as an incised coiffure. Size (slab figure): 4.1" W x 7.75" H (10.4 cm x 19.7 cm); (seated figure): 3.4" W x 5.875" H (8.6 cm x 14.9 cm)
In this culture, the dead were buried down shafts - 3 to 20 meters deep - that were dug vertically or near vertically through the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region. The base of the shaft would open into one or more horizontal chambers with a low ceiling. These shafts were almost always dug beneath a dwelling, probably a family home, and seem to have been used as family mausoleums, housing the remains of many related individuals. This is a figure made to be placed inside those mausoleums, perhaps to mediate between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Provenance: Whisnant Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, acquired before 2000
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#123075
Condition
Seated figure has head reattached to body at neckline, with small chips and light adhesive residue along break line. Slab figure has loss to bottom of one foot. Both figures have minor abrasions and nicks, with fading to surface pigment. Nice deposits on surface.