Ancient Mexican Artifacts from Central Mexico - Artemis Gallery

Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus.

The major Pre-Classic cultures of Mexico were the Olmec and the western cultures of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit; Teotihuacán, the Maya cities, the Zapotec center at Monte Albán, and the Classic Vera Cruz culture were the dominant civilizations of the Classic period; during the Post-Classic period important cultures developed among the Toltec, the Tarascan, the Huastec and Totonac, the Mixtec, and the Aztecs.

Monte Alban Greyware Pottery Duck Vessel A lovely vessel! Large pottery jar from the Monte Alban culture of southern Mexico. Ca 400 to 550 AD, decorated with gray slip in the form of a duck, with relief wings... $3,150.00

A Vera Cruz Head (Slightly Larger than Life-Size) From ancient Mexico, Veracruz, ca. 600 to 900 AD. Terracotta head of a chieftain, broken off a larger figure. Wearing a headdress that straps under chin, $3,795.00

Vera Cruz Standing Female - 23"H! Pre-Columbian, Mexico, ca 800 to 1000 AD. Very large standing female figure in buff pottery, she stands with arms held out slightly looking like she is... $1,495.00

Vera Cruz Stone Implement Snake Form Pre-Columbian, Mexico, ca. 800 AD. Carved basalt stone implement fragment in the form of a snake head. Large, grinning serpent with flaring nostrils and... $595.00

Pre-Columbian Vera Cruz Stone Yoke A beauty, completely intact! From ancient Mexico, Veracruz, Early Post Classic Periods, ca. 600 - 900 A.D. Carved, pecked and polished greenstone, $0.00 February 29th Auction Item View/Bid Now

Mezcala Miniature Stone Pendant Ancient Pre-Columbian Pendant from Guerrero, Mexico, ca. 900 - 100 B.C. Carved in miniature from a single piece of stone. $795.00

Many of the ancient Mexican cultures produced ceramic figures and pottery. The site of Tlatilco, in the Valley of Mexico, has yielded famous ceramics of remarkably early date, about 500 B.C. Delicacy of detail characterizes the figurines of Teotihuacán, and the finely decorated funerary urns of Monte Albán are particularly well executed. In the western states of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima, early cultures produced an enormously varied array of fanciful and often grotesque terra-cotta figurines and pottery during the Classic period, 300 to 900 A.D. These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions in building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, a complex theology, and the wheel: however, without any draft animals, the wheel was used only as a toy. They also used native copper and gold for metalworking.