Pre-Columbian - Ancient Pottery for Sale

Possibly first developed in Colombia or Ecuador, pottery succeeded baskets and gourds as containers in ancient times. Throughout the entire Pre-Columbian world, pottery became the most common surviving artifact. Both hand-modeled and molded pots and clay objects were made. Decoration involved incising designs, carving or molding reliefs, and employing various techniques of painting and polishing. Although polychromed ceramics were produced, most pottery was painted with one or two colors or left unpainted.

Superb Pair Tlatilco Pottery Heads Ancient Pre-Columbian Tlatilco "Pretty Lady" Heads from Mexico, ca. 1500 to 500 BC. Among two of the finer examples of the superb pottery skills of the early... $395.00 SOLD

Post-Classic Mayan Plumbate Olla Manufactured toward the end of the Mayan civilization, most likely in Guatemala, ca 900 to 1000 AD. A fine example of the pottery known as "Plumbate," fired at... $595.00 SOLD

Nazca Trophy Head Polychrome Cup Just slightly larger than a miniature - and unusual as such. Ancient Pre-Columbian Nazca Polychrome cup, from Southern Peru, ca. 200 - 400 AD. In the form of a Trophy... $450.00 SOLD

Rare Cocle Pottery Whistle - Bird Form A very sweet and unusual ancient pottery whistle from the Cocle culture of Panama, ca 600 to 800 AD. Small polychrome bird-form whistle with mouthpiece in tail; $195.00 SOLD

Nazca Polychrome Cup with Trophy Head Delightful ancient Pre-Columbian Nazca vessel in the form of a trophy head! Ca. 100 to 300 A.D., small polychrome cup or seed jar painted in shades of red, dark brown... $495.00

Pre-Columbian potters created many plain, functional pottery for common use, but they also formed elaborate and intricate art for religious use that required great skill to produce. They buried pottery with their dead to accompany them into the afterlife, thereby demonstrating the predominance of pottery in their culture and their skill at creating it to modern archeologists. In Pre-Columbian times, kilns were not used; pieces of pottery were fired in an open fire or a pit in the ground. Potters did not use any type of glaze, but they did burnish the surface of their pots with stones. Pots were decorated with gods, animals, plants, everyday scenes and geometric designs.