Pre-Columbian Antiquities from Mesoamerica and Mexico

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.

Guerrero Stone Figure / Axe God From San Geronimo, Mexico, ca. 900 - 100 B.C. Creamy-white hardstone axe god figure with deeply-grooved neck surmounted by the stylized head having slit eyes/mouth and $1,695.00

Jaina Figural Lord Whistle Very stern-looking Mayan lord forms the basis for this ancient pottery whistle. From the Jaina Island, off the coast of Yucatan, Mexico, dating between 400 and 600 A.D. $495.00

Whistling Colima Dancers, ex-Butterfield's Matched pair! Ancient Pre-Columbian Dance Figures, from West Mexico, Colima culture, ca. 200 B.C. - 300 A.D. Terracotta pottery figures (clearly male) with hands $2,795.00

Xiochopola Incised Stone Bowl Early and rare! Ancient Pre-Columbian Stone Bowl, from Xiochopola, Guererro/Olmec culture, ca. 1000-500 B.C. Green speckled stone bowl with incised decorations on the outside that feature three... $6,495.00 SALE PENDING

Chancay Textile Cloth Doll This is the real deal, not a modern assembly... Ancient Pre-Columbian Doll, Chancay culture, ca. 1200-1500 A.D. Large, woven and embroidered textile male figure in doll... $495.00

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.