Carved Bowl
Unknown Artist
1200–300 BCE
Medium
stone (travertine)
Dimensions
13.3 × 23.5 × 10.2 cm
Classification
Stone
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
2013.29
About this artwork
Containers made of translucent white travertine, known among the later Aztecs as tecali, are rare in Olmec artistic production. The shape of this elegant example, its rim pinched inward at the center, may refer to a squash. The meaning of the deeply carved abstract motifs, which retain traces of red pigment, is unknown. The bowl is said to have been found in a burial cache that included an Olmec figurine, a hematite mirror, and jade ornaments in Guerrero, Mexico.