Exhibited Jalisco Ameca Grey Pottery Seated Elder Male

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, Ameca Grey type, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A hollow-built pottery elder male figure seated upon a broad base with bent legs balancing his poised demeanor. The nude man has a petite phallus between his red-slipped legs, holds slender arms and closed hands atop his knees, and fifty-five applied nodules on his shoulders that scholars posit are 'ritual scarification pellets.' His elongated head bears sunken cheek bones and recessed eye sockets indicative of advanced age, a prominent aquiline nose, and a thin mouth between tall, pierced ears, all beneath a smooth brow and a simple cap. Size: 8.75" W x 16.375" H (22.2 cm x 41.6 cm)

West Mexican shaft tomb figures like this example derive their names from the central architectural feature that we know of from this culture. Jalisco, located on Mexico's southwestern coast, was part of the shaft tomb culture during this time, along with neighbors in nearby Colima and Nayarit. These people would build generally rectangular vertical or near-vertical shafts down from the ground level - usually about 3 to 20 meters deep - through tepetate, the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region, to narrow horizontal tunnels that led to one or more vaulted or rounded burial chambers.

Exhibited in the University of St. Thomas Art Gallery.

Provenance: ex-private collection of the late Father Bader, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas, USA; exhibited in the University of St. Thomas Art Gallery, acquired prior to 2000

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#154377
Condition Report: Professionally repaired from multiple pieces, with restoration to left foot, and resurfacing with overpainting along new material and break lines. Losses to small areas of feet and one shoulder pellet as shown. Abrasions and nicks to limbs, body, and head, with fading to original pigment, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits and root marks as well as great remains of original pigment throughout.