Figure fragment
500-1500 CE
Unknown Artist (West Mexico)
Notes
See 1955.1.112.a for a similar figurine, both of which have rounded ears above the earflare. The multiple-band neck adornment comprises typical body adornment for West Mexican peoples based on depictions of such ornaments on ceramic figural sculptures, especially those from Nayarit and Jalisco. The deep red color of the paste also is a known ceramic matrix in certain locales in the Jalisco-Nayarit border region. See Pickering, R. and C. Smallwood-Roberts, 2014, The Visual Guide to West Mexico Shaft Tomb Ceramic Figures, Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, pp. 106, 111, 117).
Also see Bell, Betty, 1971, “Archaeology of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. II, Part 2. University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 694-753; Taube, Karl, 1988, The Albers Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Hudson Hills Press, New York.