A solid terracotta bare-chested standing female figure, holding her hands on her stomach, wearing skirt, necklaces, head band and disc ear ornaments, parts of which are enhanced with the original pale cream and white pigments.
 
Pre-Columbian Nayarit: circa 100 BC- 250 AD.
 
Complete and intact; with some surface weathering.
Height 16.5 cms (6.5 ins)
 
Provenance: Private NYC. collection, acquired from Arte Primitivo, 1990's.
 
The people on the west coast of Mexico developed a thriving culture between approximately 500 B.C. and 500 AD., in an area of large wetlands and dense jungle. They left no written language, and all that is known about them comes from their ceramic art, which, for its time, is rivalled only by the Han Dynasty in China. The Nayarit is one of the great unknown Mesoamerican cultures. It was a farming people whose society was revolved around the shaman, the main head of a religion in which the cult of the dead played a major role.