Colima Effigy Vessel of a Shark Protoclassic, ca. 100 B.C.- A.D. 250

in the act of shallowing a human figure with the  legs projecting from the toothy mouth, the composite shark with two fins and supported on four legs, with wide circular eyes and flared nose.

Acquired in 1966

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico, Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5- November 22 1998, continuing to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 20, 1998-March 29, 1999

Richard Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico, Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, 1998, pg. 188, Fig. 29, cat. no. 53

overall excellent, clean repair on front right leg, minor scratches on patina as shown.
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Peter Furst explored the mythology of the shark and other large sea creatures along the North and South American coasts. These powerful ocean dwellers held a reciprocal and important role in shamanic concepts, whereby the shark ingests a human figure and releases it as a transformed and enpowered aide which can communicate with the animal spirits. The transformed shaman (who may be a ruler or clan leader), now becomes an ally with the animal world, see Furst in Townsend (1998:187-188);  see also ibid (Fig. 30) for the standing figure in a shark helmet.