Published Tumaco-La-Tolita Statuette of a Shaman with Headdress and Body Jewellery

Culture: Tumaco-La-Tolita/Pacific coast of South Colombia and North Ecuador

Period: 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 22.8 cm high

Price: 4 800 Euro

Ref: 11025

Provenance: Austrian private collection Prof. Josef Mairitsch (1938-1994) with inventory number M 74. Acquired between 1960 and the early 1980s. Thence in the family estate. With a copy of the catalogue page and collection note.

Condition: The fingers of both hands reattached, on the right one with small missing parts. Wear on the little toe of the left foot. Otherwise very beautifully preserved.

Description: Important terracotta statuette of grey clay of the Tumaco-La-Tolita culture, which was native in the coastal areas of northern Ecuador and southern Colombia. Depicted is a standing dignitary, whose skull was consciously deformed at his toddler age and elongated at the back to underline his ethnicity and social ranking. By pressing and bandaging with the help of two boards tied with ribbons, the early childhood head was forced to grow in length. The man wears an opulent headdress, which frames his face with a central medallion on the forehead. His gaze is directed upwards. The eyes are almond-shaped and look out from thick lids. The nose is long, the mouth slightly open. The large, spoon-like ears lie on the side and hold the headdress. The man has his arms stretched out to the sides, the hands are open. He wears a long necklace around his neck, which holds a large, honeycomb-formed amulet in front of the chest. Around the loins he also wears a jewellery band and in the front an apron, which covers his private parts. Otherwise he is without clothes. Published in: Josef Mairitsch “Columbus am Wörthersee. Amerika vor Columbus.” Catalogue for the special exhibition of the cultural department of the state capital Klagenfurt on 1 June to 31 October 1992, page 47, no. 3.18. See for the type the very similar statuette in Armand J. Labbé “Colombia Antes De Colón”, Bogota 1988, p. 35, number 2.