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.

Colima Flat Figure Ancient Pre-Columbian Flat Figure from West Mexico, Colima culture, ca. 250 B.C. - 250 A.D. Constructed from a dark brown clay, this male figure has slit, coffee-bean eyes... $345.00

Huge Chupicuaro Bi-Chrome Tripod One of the largest and finest we have seen! From the Guanajuato region of Mexico, Ca 300 BC. Large and near-perfect Chupicuaro bi-chrome tripod vessel decorated... $1,295.00 SOLD

Chupicuaro Tri-lobe Jar, Ex Peter Wray Early Chupicuaro pottery vessel from the Guanajuato Valley of western Mexico. Red brown vessel having stubby round tripod legs, flared rim. Probe hole through one leg, $195.00

Colima Pottery Dance Grouping An important and quite rare ancient ceremonial dance platform from the Colima region of west Mexico, ca. 100 B.C. to 100 A.D. Comprised of six standing figures in... $14,950.00

Michoacan Bowl with Rare Motif Very decorative and unusual polychrome bowl from the Michoacan region of Mexico, ca 200 BC to 400 AD. Redware vessel decorated with two standing bird figures, $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.