Nayarit Seated Figure with Shaman's Horn

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit. A pottery figure shown seated with hands resting on thighs. Facing forward, the elongated head features slit-form eyes, a pinched nose, and an open mouth, beneath a protruding knob on the forehead, possibly intended as a shaman's horn. A collar necklace with a loop pendant falls on the clavicle, above sloped shoulders and slender, tubular arms adorned with layered bangles. Clay figures like this one are the only remains that we have today of a sophisticated and unique culture in West Mexico - they made no above-ground monuments or sculptures, at least that we know of, which is in strong contrast to developments elsewhere in ancient Mesoamerica. Instead, their tombs were their lasting works of art: skeletons arrayed radially with their feet positioned inward, and clay offerings, like this one, placed alongside the walls facing inward, near the skulls. A large effigy like this one would most likely have flanked the entrance to a tomb in a way that archaeologists have interpreted as guarding. Some scholars have connected these dynamic sculptures of the living as a strong contrast to the skeletal remains whose space they shared, as if they mediated between the living and the dead. Item # 185726

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