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The cultures of West Mexico, unlike most other cultures in Mesoamerica, often depicted everyday activities with no apparent ceremonial content. This realistic rendering of an emaciated old woman, her ribs showing through her skin, as she takes the grains off a corn cob and puts them into a bowl, appears to be just this kind of scene. Notice the multiple earrings and the nose ornament that pierces her septum from side to side.




Old woman threshing an ear of corn
West Mexico
Classic Period (200-800 A.D.)
State of Colima
Red clay with white and black pigments
19.7 x 82 cm.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

Photo © Jorge Pérez de Lara