Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. An excellent example of the type, this is a large earthenware figure of a seated woman. Her body is broad, with small breasts up near her shoulders, and short legs ending in curved nubs. Her arms are thin, with her shoulders studded with round cicatrices (ritual scarification), and her hands touch her body below her breasts. Her face is large, with coffee bean-shaped eyes and a mouth of similar shape. Her nose is prominent, as are her ears. She has a large forehead and wears a headband; other than that and the cicatrices, she is nude, although she is painted to have red everywhere except the top of her head, her shoulders, and around her waist and groin. Size: 10" W x 14.45" H (25.4 cm x 36.7 cm)

Colima, located on Mexico's southwestern coast, was during this time part of the shaft tomb culture, along with neighbors to the north in Jalisco and Nayarit. 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: private Nevada, USA collection; ex Dr. David Harner collection, Arkansas, USA, acquired from the 1950s to 1960s

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#123301

One leg has been expertly repaired and restored; it is almost impossible to tell. Very nice remaining pigment, with manganese deposits over the entirety of the body.