Bowl c. 201 - 500

This earthenware bowl was made by an artist from Nayarit, a region in western Mexico. Though we don’t know exactly when it was created, similar pieces have been dated to between 200 BCE and 300 CE. Archaeological finds suggest that bowls like this one weren’t used for daily meals. Instead, they were created as burial offerings. The ancient people of Nayarit placed great emphasis on the afterlife, and their tombs contained elaborate ceramic figures, jewelry, and vessels filled with food and drink to accompany the deceased. This bowl, with its simple geometric decoration of red dots and lines, probably held sustenance for a person’s journey into the underworld. Considering the bowl’s purpose can lead us to interesting insights about life in ancient Nayarit, for example, about its burial customs or its attitudes toward death. By consulting archaeological reports, ethnographies, and museum collections, historians can better understand the social contexts that give such objects their meaning.