Figure Item Number: Ni91 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

A light brown-grey figure sitting with knees folded under and with hands clasped behind the back. Long oval face, wearing a headdress, eyelids surround grooved eyes, thin rectangular nose, mouth, breasts, and six earrings on each ear.

History Of Use

These types of hollow, naturalistic redware ceramics have been found in (often elaborate) shaft tombs, a mortuary structure unique to the western Mexican states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco. Some experts think the main figure found in such burials may represent a powerful, elite member of the society; other figures may depict retainers sacrificed to accompany that person in the afterlife. Other figures commonly depict warriors, pregnant women, acrobats, male and female couples both seated and standing, and women with children. (The end date of the period is in dispute.)