Seated couple, ca. 200 BC - 300 AD ·  Mexico, Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit · ID: 3052998

Description

ceramic, painted in earthy red, black, and cream white, old label " “BR 22 89 18”, missing part, rest.

Both hollow figures display the same body and facial features. The rope-like twisted headbands, the large ear ornaments, and the facial painting are also identical.

Some two thousand years ago, the inhabitants of communities in what is now the modern Mexican state of Nayarit buried their revered dead in in one-to-five meter deep shaft-and-chamber tombs in hilltop cemeteries.

These figures were valuable grave offerings in the tombs of deceased individuals of high social status. They were often made in male-female pairs, or family groups, underscoring the importance of kinship, descent, and ancestors in West Mexican community practice and belief.

Comparing literature

Leyenaar, Ted u.a., Von Küste zu Küste, o.O. 1992, p. 310, fig. 288 f.

Notices

This object is subject to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Export documents are required for export (subjected to a fee).