Tumaco Ecuador Terracotta Mask – Pre-columbian Art

Pretty head in granular terracotta of gray color, typical of the Tumaco culture (border between Ecuador and Colombia / precolombian art).
Original yellow pigments adorn this mask. Flat in shape, perforated on the forehead and ears (here one ear), it is probably an adornment pendant.

Period: - 500 to 500 AD approximately
Dimensions: 35 x 40 mm (excluding base)

Presented on a wooden base, the head can be easily detached from the back. Used condition, right ear missing (broken). From a French collection of pre-Columbian objects gathered by a collector during the second half of the 20th century, sold at the very end of the 1990s.

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1 - The term "pre-Columbian" (or "pre-Hispanic") is associated with the period preceding the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 in this region of the globe, when he thought he would reach the Indies from the west. This is the art of the indigenous populations of South and Central America.