House model

200 B.C. - 300 A.D.

The lower story of this house may represent a place for funerary preparations or even an entrance into a family tomb. Observance of religious rites likely focused on ancestors and the power they exerted in the world of the living. The wide variety of West Mexico ceramics offers an engaging and insightful glimpse into this ancient culture.

Ceramic

14 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 8 in. (37.5 x 32.4 x 20.3 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.1375

Provenance: [Primus]; purchased by Katherine White, December 18, 1960; by gift to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, Califoria, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Ancedotal Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico, 1972. Text by Hasso von Winning and Olga Hammer, p. 55, no. 30.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art of the Ancient Americas, July 10, 1999 - May 11, 2003.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Feasting with the Gods: Art and Ceremony in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Central Andes, Dec. 11, 2003 - July 19, 2004.

Published ReferencesMiller, Mary. "Art of Oceania, Mesoamerica, and the Andes." In Selected Works, pp. 59-64. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 60, reproduced (as Nayarit House Group).

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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