Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A large ceramic figure from the West Mexican shaft tomb tradition, in the form of a kneeling pregnant woman. She has prominent breasts and genitalia; her arms and legs, small relative to her torso, are bent, her feet underneath her prominent buttocks and her hands on her pregnant stomach. She wears nothing except for a double-stranded necklace that hangs down between her breasts. Her hair is beautifully styled, with incised lines forming an elaborate coiffure. Although her face has been reconstructed, it is probably similar to the piece's original form, with prominent earrings and a large nose. Size: 10" W x 19.5" H (25.4 cm x 49.5 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 Kurquhill's Gallery, El Paso, Texas, USA; ex private El Paso, Texas, USA collection, acquired early to mid 1970s

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#127719

Body is intact, with surface losses and abrasion as shown. Head has been reconstructed and reattached.