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LiveScience
LiveScience
Kristina Killgrove

Tumaco-Tolita Seated Elder: This 2,000-year-old depiction of an aged man with wrinkles struck fear in people because it held 'the power'

Gold
A broken ceramic figurine depicting an elderly man seated on a stool.
QUICK FACTS

Name: Tumaco-Tolita Seated Elder

What it is: A ceramic figurine

Where it is from: Near the Colombia-Ecuador border

When it was made: Between 200 B.C. and A.D. 300

Around two millennia ago, Tumaco-Tolita potters living in what is now Colombia and Ecuador began crafting hyperrealistic sculptures of their revered elders. This figurine of an older man, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, may have been a religious specialist, shaman or other leader in his community.

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