Figure Item Number: 3501/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Ceramic shaft tomb figure of a standing male wearing a headdress. Figure is coloured dark cream with additional red decorations. Figure has a squat, rounded torso with wide rectangle-like limbs. Back is flat. Feet are spaced shoulder width apart and have very high arches. Arms are bent at sides with hands held outward. “V” shapes painted across chest and back, framing neck. Diagonal lines, pointing inward, decorate front and back of shoulders. Horizontal line along waist on back of figure. Male has large oval-shaped ears, done in red, and no facial features. Headdress has a triangle projecting outward from the forehead, with a protruding red semi-circle underneath. Top edge of headdress bordered with a dark red band. Back is concave.
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.)
Acquired by the donor's father in Mexico in the 1940s.