Pre-Columbian, Brazil, Amazon River Estuary, Marajo Island, Marajoara (also Marajo) culture, ca. 800 to 1400 CE. A rare and intriguing set of 5 hand-built pottery drug implements of petite yet sturdy sizes featuring bulbous bodies, rounded bases, protruding spouts, and incised motifs. Two of the implements resemble abstract avian creatures, with 1 covered in white pigment and orange fineline motifs, and the other with only orange pigment. Next is a large orangeware implement with incised body details that resemble an abstract human face. Another orangeware implement features incised decorations that resemble the scutes or a turtle or tortoise. The last implement is covered in white pigment and resembles a manatee or dugong floating on its back with flippers raised into the air. Size of largest (abstract avian): 5" L x 3.2" W (12.7 cm x 8.1 cm)

The Marajoara - also known as the Marajo - flourished on Marajo Island, in the mouth of the Amazon River. They built impressive mounds and lived subsistence lifestyles while producing stylistically unique, beautiful pottery like this. This was a large-scale civilization, contrary to what many European researchers believed of the Amazon before their discovery - the mounds ranged from 3 to 10 meters in height, and some sites cover more than 10 square kilometers and contain 20 to 30 individual mounds. Their figural pottery was mainly of females, representing roughly 70-90% of all known ceramic sculptures from the Marajoara and their neighbors the Santarem, which researchers believe indicates that chiefly descent came from a mythical female ancestor. During this period, both male and female figures are shown as shamans.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Eugene Lions collection, Geneve, Switzerland, collected 1960 to 2000

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#160593

All pieces have minor nicks, abrasions, and fading to pigment, with a few lamps with some small spalls, and softening to incised and fineline details on some lamps, otherwise all are intact and excellent. Nice remains of incised details and pigment throughout. Old inventory or find site numbers written in black ink beneath base of each implement.