Pedestal jar
Medium:Polychrome
Geography: Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Date: AD 1000-1350
Dimensions:28 × 18 × 18 cm
Object number: 2018.11.5
Credit Line: Gift of Philip and Marian Brady
Description
This jar is an example of the egg-shaped Pataky
Polychrome jars of the Greater Nicoya region of the Pacific Coast of Costa
Rica. Typically found in graves, the vessels likely contained offerings
of food or drink. The bands of decoration on this vessel may represent the layers
that make up the world – a spiritually-charged upper layer, followed by the
terrestrial layer in which we dwell, and an underworld layer at the bottom. The
vessel emphasizes the boundaries between layers and the ways in which these
layers can be penetrated. In the upper register, an animal,
likely an alligator or jaguar, moves between the cosmological
divide, emphasizing how spiritual mediums who take on these animals can
move to and inhabit either world. The heliacal vine motif in the bottom
register adds to this spiritual imagery. It depicts the
key ingredient for ayahuasca, a brew traditionally used in shamanism that
is said to give the consumer revelations. The use of blank space maximizes the
separation between worlds.
