Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Costa Rican Archaeological Bowl

decorative clay bowl from Costa Rica

by Deb Harding

In the process of photographing all the archaeological pottery in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collection, this bowl caught my eye. It was purchased as part of a huge collection from an estate owner in the Central Valley of Costa Rica around 1903 while Carnegie Museum curator Carl V. Hartman was doing the first scientific archaeological excavations in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we do not have any information about the particular site or time period. This is the best example from a whole series of bowls that look like the pigs from Angry Birds™.

Deb Harding is a collection manager in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Anthropology. She frequently blogs and shares pieces of the museum’s hidden anthropology collection, which is home to over 100,000 ethnological and historical specimens and 1.5 million archaeological artifacts.