OLMEC INCISED BOWL OF A SUPERNATURAL, MORELOS REGION EARLY PRECLASSIC, CIRCA 1200-900 BC

Ceramic vessels from the Olmec region provide vivid and important representations of supernatural deities. By 1200 BC in the Basin of Mexico and the nearby Puebla and Morelos region, flat-bottom ceramics were boldly engraved with powerful abstract and esoteric symbols reflecting cosmological beliefs. 

This vessel depicts two images of the dramatic profile head known as the banded-eye deity, distinctive for the open mouth with flared upper lip, toothless gum accented by crosshatching, large almond-shaped eye, and the narrow band extending from the back of the cleft head to the eye, down the cheek and curving to the back. Two wavy cross motifs separate each head.

The deity is consistently shown without a body, and is found on numerous ceramics of the Early Preclassic era in the Central Mexico. It was a prime character in the formative years of Olmec religion. This deity profile is carved on the shoulder of the famous Las Limas stone figure, a 'dictionary' of the important earth and water deities. The banded-eye profile is associated with the fish monster and the realm of the underworld sea. 

For a closely related vessels, see Benson and de la Fuente, eds., Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, New York, 1996, cat. no. 40; and Stierlin, Mexique, Terre des Dieux, Geneva, 1998, cat. nos. 34 and 36; and Berrin and Fields, eds., Olmec, Colossal Masterworks from Ancient Mexico, San Francisco, 2010, p. 206, pl. 112, for the vessel in the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection in the Indiana University Art Museum (IUAM 81.32.3).