Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Oaxaca, Zapotec culture, ca. 600 to 800 CE. A wonderful pottery figure of flat form depicting a dignified and standing man, heavily adorned with annular earspools and a flaring headdress. The slightly open lips reveal a vampiric pair of sharpened teeth. Modifications to teeth was a popular practice in Mesoamerican cultures, filing, and inlaying precious stones into the upper or lower incisors or canines to beautify or embody an identity. The Zapotec, like many Pre-Columbian civilizations, placed clay effigies into burials, often in the forms of urns or vessels which may have represented the deities, ancestors, or shamans. Size: 6.75" L x 3.5" W (17.1 cm x 8.9 cm)

Provenance: ex-Marc Amiguet Schmitt estate, Amiguet's Ancient Art, Evansville, Indiana, USA, acquired prior to January 1, 2010

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#174944

Minor chips and fading to pigments, otherwise intact and excellent, with nice manganese blooms throughout.