Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Post Classic Maya, Mixtec, ca. 1200 to 1500 CE. A huge round urn with flared rim and two horizontal loop handles and a flat base. The interior is painted a dark red around the rim that fades into orange inside the body. The exterior has a geometric pattern of a cream background with bright orange jagged steps and red dots. Around the neck is a register of glyph-like symbols that also look like animal eyes, possibly avian ones. Mixtec glyphs are known from a few surviving manuscripts, the Mixtec codices, that were used to chart genealogical histories of ruling dynasties, and similar iconographies and symbols are used in their pottery, even though codices could only be read by a small number of people in the society but polychrome vessels like this one were intended for a wide range of people. At excavations in this region, in fact, we have found more polychrome pottery in commoner's residences than in elite ones - particularly ones like this, with its geometric designs rather than glyph-like motifs. The meaning of urns like this one remains a source of mystery, and research, for archaeologists. Size: 10.5" W x 10" H (26.7 cm x 25.4 cm)

Provenance: Ex-D. Sanchez collection

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