Pre-Columbian, Central America, Panama, Gran Cocle, Macaracas type, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A wonderful set of two hand-built pottery pedestal dishes decorated with vibrant pigments and intriguing zoomorphs. Each vessel bears a conical foot and a pedestal base surmounted with a shallow bowl, and both are highly burnished and painted with red, black, and purple pigments atop cream grounds. The first vessel features 3 petite triangular cut-outs around the foot, broad stripes around the rim, and an abstract saurian creature within the basin with serrated stingray barbs projecting from nearly every peripheral surface. The larger vessel is illustrated with a pair of saurian creatures within the basin, each with curled noses, serrated dorsal fins, and fang-filled mouths. An interesting pair from ancient Panama! Size of largest (two saurians): 6" W x 3.9" H (15.2 cm x 9.9 cm)

According to scholar Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, "The Gran Cocle culture is a Pre-Columbian archaeological culture that gets its name from the area from which it was based, the now present-day Cocle province of Panama. The Gran Cocle term applies to a loosely studied group of Native American sub-cultures in this region, identified by their pottery styles. The overall period spans a time from 150 B.C. to the end in the 16th century A.D. upon Spanish contact. The most ancient culture is the La Mula period from 150 B.C. to 300 A.D. The La Mula and later Monagrillo and Tonosi pottery styles are identified by their use of three paint colors which were black, red and white (or cream). The later Cubita style saw the emergence of the use of four colors. The styles of Conte, Macaracas and Joaquín added purple to their palette and this hue ranged from grayish tones to red purple. The use of purple disappeared in the subsequent styles of Parita and El Altillo and the paint style reverted to the use of three colors. Most notable in the artistic renderings are the overt use of geometric designs." (For more information, see Armand Labbe, "Guardians of The Life Stream: Shamans, Art and Power in Prehispanic Central Panama." Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, University of Washington Press, 1995)

Provenance: ex Stein collection, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, acquired prior to 2010

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#164087

Smaller dish and foot repaired from over a dozen pieces with restoration along some break lines; repair to area of foot of larger vessel with restoration along break lines; both vessels with resurfacing and overpainting along new material and break lines. Both vessels have light abrasions and encrustations. Great preservation to original pigment throughout. Old inventory label written in white pigment inside foot of larger vessel.