On view
Art of the Ancient Americas
Female figurine,
1400–1100 BCE
Tlatilco (Type D4)
Early Formative Period
1999-241
Although not the first places where ceramics were produced in Mesoamerica, villages in the central basin of Mexico, now encompassed by Mexico City, the adjacent valley of Morelos to the south, and the region around the modern town of Las Bocas, Puebla, are among the areas most renowned for their ancient ceramic vessels and figurines. Local workers and amateur pothunters were the first, in the early twentieth century, to encounter the remains of these villages. The objects they looted from the sites and sold on the art market became prized by a small number of art collectors in Mexico and the United States. Later, archaeologists excavated sites in the area, contributing crucial information about the original burial context for these works.
Information
Title
Female figurine
Dates
1400–1100 BCE
Medium
Ceramic with red and yellow slip-paint
Dimensions
10 × 4.5 × 2.4 cm (3 15/16 × 1 3/4 × 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Gillett G. Griffin
Object Number
1999-241
Place Made
North America, Mexico, Mexico City, Central Mexico, Tlatilco
Culture
Period
Subject
February 28, 1970, sold by ‘J.P.’ to Gillett G. Griffin (1928-2016), Princeton, NJ [1]; 1999, gift of Gillett G. Griffin to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] According to Griffin's Notebook 5-15.
- Gillett G. Griffin, "Xochipala, the Earliest Great Art Style in Mexico," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 116, no. 4 (August 1972): 301-309, fig. 12, p. 308 (illus.)
-
Robert M. Carmack et al., The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996)
, fig 14.2, p. 508 (illus.) - "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1999," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 59, no. 1/2 (2000): p. 70-101., p. 85
- Robert M. Carmack, Janine Gasco, Gary H. Gossen, The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd edition (Abingson; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2016).
