Dog with a Corn-cob in its Teeth

Protoclassical period, 300 BC - 300 AD

Colima

Terracotta

National Museum of Anthropology, CONACULTA-INAH Mexico City

The figure represents a hairless dog. In its teeth it holds a corn-cob, the tail serves as the vessel's mouth. Dog, one of the few domesticated animals in Mexico, was considered a delicacy. Besides, Mexicans believed that dog accompanied the dead in the underworld. The statuette has a red glazed surface, typical for finds from the state of Colima. When engobe with which craftsmen coated their products dried, it was polished, glazed and baked. Baking oven was not known in Mexico where clay products were baked in open fire. They were covered with broken crockery and fuel, for example, firewood. The statuette was found in a shaft burial; it may have been part of the funereal gifts.