This vessel depicts the human form, where the concave base of the recipient coincides with the belly of an individual. These effigies/recipients were very common in Mesoamerican ceramic art, and began to be developed around the year 1000 and prevailed until the Spanish Conquest.
In the majority of cases, these vessels were naturally not used for drinking, as they would be fragile and inconvenient. The liquid placed in them, such as water, pulque, cocoa or some other beverage, would have been used as an offering. Large dishes and bowls were used for solid offerings while vessels were used for liquids.
As a general rule, when a luxury or ceremonial vessel is preserved intact it is because it was protected in a cavity, burial or covered tomb. Objects left on patios or in rooms broke with the collapsing of the roof or walls over time, and reach us as fragmented pieces. A vessel like this one and others of its type must have come from a burial context.
It is worth reflecting on the probable meaning of the figure and also how it is related to the function of recipients used for offerings. The horizontal position, with the abdomen facing downward, and the posture of the arms and legs, stretched out and slightly flexed, suggests the action of flying or floating, a posture that we also find, for example, in horizontal reliefs of the building of the Dancers of Monte Alban, and in the stucco of the effigies of the deceased men in one of the royal tombs of Lambityeco, also in the Valley of Oaxaca.
It these cases it is probable that we are faced with the same concept: individuals engaged in some kind of flight, perhaps an allegory of the soul's journey, which due to its volatile character, moves by floating and spinning to through the stages of heaven and hell. In the case of common deaths, those who had not died in war or by any supernatural cause, this journey allowed the soul to reach the area of the deceased where the journey came to an end.
It is likely then that this vessel formed part of a group of burial offerings that carried a liquid inside and made reference to the soul of the deceased buried there.
Despite the fact that we do not have many stylistic features to make an assessment on the origin of this piece, it is very likely that it is from Oaxaca, as it is there that the theme of the floating or flying individual (probably alluding to the soul) is most common; also, the facial features, with their moderate realism and expression, coincide with the stylistic tradition of the ceramics from Monte Alban.
