Description: Large museum quality elegant Pre-Columbian Tairona Culture jaguar vessel (circa 1000-1200 CE) . This stunning figural effigy vessel features a jaguar head bearing a toothy grin and stands on four stout legs.

Condition: In excellent condition, showing a fine ancient patina.

Provenance: From the Collection of Dr. Joseph Nader of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; Dr. Nader was born and raised in Columbia and moved to the U.S. in the 1960s.

Measurements: 9” long, 5-1/4” wide, 8-1/2” tall

The Tairona Civilization - one of the Chibcha family tribes - flourished in northern Colombia between 200 CE and 1600 CE. Like the Muisca of Cundinamarca, the Tairona were known for their expertise in crafting and metallurgy, especially goldsmithing. Primarily occupying the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region in present-day Magdalena, they left behind them a bountiful of archaeological evidence of their lifestyle, which was surprisingly modern as viewed from the perspective of their relative isolation to more developed civilizations.