Currently not on view
Female figure,
2400–2250 BCE
Valdivia (Phase 4)
G25
Valdivia Figurines
The rich river valleys and alluvial floodplains near Ecuador’s central coast were among the first places in the Americas where ceramic technology developed, in the fourth millennium B.C. The people of this region, known today as Valdivia, had adopted maize agriculture in earlier millennia, allowing for hundreds of villages to thrive in the region. Among the most famous forms of art known from Valdivia are small females, rendered first in stone and later in ceramic. They seem to represent women in various stages of life, suggesting that they may have been used in rituals associated with changes in life status. Alternatively, they might be representations of goddesses or shamans.
The rich river valleys and alluvial floodplains near Ecuador’s central coast were among the first places in the Americas where ceramic technology developed, in the fourth millennium B.C. The people of this region, known today as Valdivia, had adopted maize agriculture in earlier millennia, allowing for hundreds of villages to thrive in the region. Among the most famous forms of art known from Valdivia are small females, rendered first in stone and later in ceramic. They seem to represent women in various stages of life, suggesting that they may have been used in rituals associated with changes in life status. Alternatively, they might be representations of goddesses or shamans.
