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The double-chambered offering bowl has the same basic design inside the bowls. In one chamber, there is a double-headed serpent. The other bowl has a pattern of diamonds that form a coiled abstract diamond-back serpent. The bottom of the bowls has been painted with parallel lines across the bowls. (6)
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The early Remojada culture fashioned solid figures of males, females and children in a naturalistic style. They were hand made with tan clay and detailed with small pieces of clay. Black chapopote or asphalt was used to heighten details or to indicate body paint. (6)
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The Eastern Nahua participated in elaborate gatherings that brought various groups together to cement social and political relationships. Entertainment required story telling, gift giving, eating, and drinking. This beautifully painted pedestal bowl was perhaps a cherished gift used to drink pulque. (6)
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The elite female figure wears a puffy jaguar skin headdress with three blue quetzal feathers, a pair of earspools and a necklace. Her old and worn body as well as her jaguar paws support a very pregnant abdomen. Fertility scepters of this goddess called "Lady Rainbow" were given to women as a good maternity omen. (6)
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The elite Maya surrounded themselves with luxury goods. This chief wears an elaborate hairdo, headband, ear spools, and shell necklace. His face shows signs of tattooing and his head has been reshaped when he was just born. The modified head with sloping forehead represents the end of elote, maize, or corn and the long flowing hair the corn silk. (6)
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The elite of Mesoamerica were allowed to wear certain kinds of body adornments. Different adornments and materials marked a person's elite status. Labrets were worn below the bottom lip. A piercer was used to make the hole and the hole was stretched over time. This labret is very unusual -- it is not made of black obsidian, which would have taken a long time to make. This labret is made of clay. It is highly polished, which has compacted the clay before firing. The wings on the circular area kept the labret from falling out. The circular hollow area was inlaid with precious materials such as pyrite, shell, obsidian, or turquoise. (5)
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The elite of Mesoamerica were always looking for new and better elite vessels to serve their guests cacao. A new type of ceramic, plumbate ware, appealed to their sensabilities for its varigated, shiny, metallic surface. This phytomorhpic cacao vessel depicts the maya rain god Chac. (6)
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The eyes, ears, mouth, and spine were inlaid in this figurative deep blue-green stone. The stone's image is obviously male, but less apparent are the secondary front and rear faces. Lay the stone stomach down, it transforms into a resting frog, the symbol of fertility. The stone transforms from a man to a frog and maybe a dog. (6)
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The female figure sits with her legs to the side. She holds a bowl in her hands a symbol of her domestic duties. (5)
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The figure has been minimalized by abstraction and simplification of the details. The white pigment on the clay suggests the figure was painted with a white material and probably painted with earthen pigments. The black clay areas on the clay marks the spot where the flames from the fire touched the clay. (7)
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The figure is in good condition. The figure is flat on the underbelly and has its hands outward with the plums flat. There are four small holes in the top of the head. There are two holes on the ears and the mouth has an opening. At the bottom of the figure there is a large opening. No presence of significant cracks or scratches. The figure is structurally safe. There are black markings on the eyes, center of the upper chest, and ankles of the feet. The shaman wears a large bell pendant necklace, ear discs, a loincloth and four holes in the top of his head. (6)
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The figure stands with his arms stretched out. He could be a priest or a dancer, but his clothing indicates another profession. He wears an elaborate headdress, his arms are covered above and below the elbow, his waist has a thick wide belt and his knees are padded. What is his profession? (6)
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The figure's compactness and the flatness of the clay indicates press mold fabrication. The clay's details hint to the figure's meaning. The band across the abdomen suggests captive. Her headdress contains three elements: an Ollin symbol, a [blank], and three feathers, precious movement (sic). (6)
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The form and the surface decorations of this vessel are very elaborate. The artisan created a teardrop-shaped vessel with a pedestal foot and three equally spaced sunken roundels in the body. He painted the vessel with a cream slip upon which he drew a band of glyphs around the mouth and a stylized profile heads in each roundel with alternating vertical glyphs in a column. (6)
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The hands on the abdomen of this young lady indicate she is a fertility figure, buried with the deceased to ensure fertility in the afterlife. She has an elaborate hairdo, headband, earspools, and bracelets. The black pigment on her body suggests body paint or clothing. (6)
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The harpy eagle is the largest bird predator in Mexico and Central America. With power and speed, it is able to fly through the junble canopy and catch a monkey. The Mixtec admired the skills of the harpy eagle and used the eagly as part of their iconography. On this harpy eagle vessel, there are rows of feathers and between some of the rows there are flint blade knives tipped with red blood. (6)
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The Huasteca, a northern branch of the Maya, lived in the Panuco River area in Northern Veracruz. They produced a distinctive creamware enhanced with dark red-brown iron oxide. The zoomorphic olla takes the form of a mammal, possibly a bat. Around his neck, he wears a pendant that represents a sliced conch shell. (6)
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The incensario contains several images: two seated anthropomorphic phallic figures, a descending serpent, and several transforming zoomorphic faces. The transforming aspect of the headdress suggests a shamanic quality to the incense burner. (1)
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The jointed-legged animal depicted around the bowl is an arthropod. The arthropod has eight legs, which makes it an arachnid or spider. A spider is a suitable Maya image, since it ambushes its prey. Once caught, the spider sucks out the vital life fluids of the prey. (6)
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The large ceramic smoking pipe was used to smoke a variety of tobacco. The tobacco contained a higher concentration of nicotine and other substances. There is a possibility that the tobacco was combined with other drugs to give a hallucinogenic experience. (6)
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