Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, San Sebastian style, ca. 300 BCE to 250 CE. A well-preserved example of a shaft tomb figure, showing a seated man wearing nothing but a long cap and earrings. This style comes from a Late Preclassic site, a shaft tomb excavated in northern Jalisco. Size: 4" L x 5.1" W x 7.55" H (10.2 cm x 13 cm x 19.2 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: Ex-Private New York Collection, ex Harner collection acquired in the 1950's

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#119566

Intact.