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.

Olmec Blackware Swan Bowl - Exceptional! They don't come much finer than this. Ancient Pre-Columbian Handled Bowl from Mexico, Olmec culture, ca. 1100 - 550 B.C. Fine, blackware terracotta pottery figural vessel features... $4,995.00

Jalisco Ameca Style Seated Female Figure In almost miniature form... Ancient Pre-Columbian Seated Female Figure from Ameca Valley, Jalisco, Mexico, ca. 1st century B.C. – 2nd century A.D. Hollow pottery figure of... $695.00

Michoacan Venus Figure Michoacan female figure from Mexico, ca. 1300 A.D. Standing Venus figure dons an elaborate hairdo, robust body and not much else. Note the detailing in the face, $395.00

Colima Maternity Idol Ancient Pre-Columbian Maternity Idol, from Mexico, Colima culture, ca. 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. Hollow-molded pottery standing female figure carries a child on her back. $1,695.00

Vera Cruz Seated Female Figure Interesting depiction! Ancient Pre-Columbian Seated Female Figure from Mexico, Vera Cruz region, ca. 400 - 900 A.D. Hollow-molded terracotta pottery figure of a portly woman... $375.00

Mezcala Stone Idol Pendant Ancient Pre-Columbian Stone Idol from Mexico, Mezcala culture, ca. 1000 B.C. Carved figure of an ax god in striated stone, in pendant form. $425.00

Colima Tri-Lobed Redware Vessel From West Mexico, Colima culture, ca. 250 B.C. - 250 A.D. Finely-burnished redware pottery vessel with tri-lobed base and slightly-flared mouth. $795.00

Mezcala Jade Pendant - Two Heads From the Guerrero region of West Mexico, ca. 300 B.C. comes this finely-carved green jade pendant depicting a anthropomorphic incised figure wearing an owl mask (owl is messenger to the afterlife) $1,995.00

Mezcala Ax God Figure Pre-Classic string-carved standing figure from Mezcala, Mexico, ca 500 to 100 B.C. Created from a hard, green stone with string cut mouth, arms and legs, eyes drilled... $1,325.00

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.