Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Panamanian Terracotta Vessel. Clay-based, non-vitreous ceramic vessel in the classic porous reddish-brown color from archaic firing at relatively low temperatures. Dusty ovoid shape, with the mark of a piece of Scotch tape on the bottom from some time the past. The lip is vertical with a small overhanging cusp, and delicate but simple raised vertical and circular shapes adorn it. The austerity of this piece indicates it served a mainly utilitarian purpose, and likely had a lost matching rest on which to sit or would be gently pressed down in the mud near a riverbank after being filled. The decorations, possibly symbolizing feathers of birds and the large eyes of frogs or lizards, indicates this likely came from the Nicoya tribe of the area now known as Panama. 

Size: 6 x 6 x 6 in. 

#5851 . 

Numerous cultural exchanges and innovations occurred in the thin and pivotal land bridge area that is now modern day Costa Rica and Panama due to its crucial position for trade and military routes. The dominant Mesoamerican cultures here were the Nicoya and the Chiriquí. The first was characterized by polychrome ceramics, whose shapes are reminiscent of the Mayan classical era, with representations of characters and animals including feathered snakes and crocodiles, and their most common products were hard stone club heads and axe-shaped pendants in the shape of divinities, carved, engraved and polished, always in hard stone. The second culture, which developed in southern Costa Rica and western Panama between 850 and 1525 A.D. is characterized by small ceramics with very thin walls, in a great variety of shapes, unpainted or with incised decoration in negative, bi-chrome. Another type of ceramic produced was that of globular vessels and tripod cups with conical feet or with decoration applied with zoomorphic effects, as well as the works of goldsmiths made using a lost wax technique. Both of these cultures flourished in the waning pre-Columbian days, and vacated their respective regions before the conquests of the Spanish and other European cultures due to environmental factors including numerous volcanic eruptions in the surrounding lands and particularly devastating hurricane seasons, similar to the causes of the downfall of the Mayans and the much earlier Olmecs.