Description:

**First Time At Auction**

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A wonderfully intact figure, hand-molded, with applied strips of clay to give her a necklace, headdress, earrings, and bracelets. She is nude otherwise, with exaggerated genitalia, and stands with her hands raised to the top of her head. Size: 3.1" W x 5.65" H (7.9 cm x 14.4 cm)

Colima, located on Mexico's southwestern coast, was during this time part of the shaft tomb culture, along with neighbors to the north in Jalisco and Nayarit. In this culture, the dead were buried down shafts -- 3 to 20 meters deep -- that were dug vertically or near vertically through the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region. The base of the shaft would open into one or more horizontal chambers with a low ceiling. These shafts were almost always dug beneath a dwelling, probably a family home, and seem to have been used as family mausoleums, housing the remains of many related individuals. Abstract human figures like this one have been found within the tombs, perhaps placed there to mediate between the living and the dead or to provide examples of what the dead did in life.

Provenance: Ex-Private Arizona collection

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#118990

  • Condition: Intact

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March 27, 2017 10:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,000
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $25,000