Bowl (Tecomate) 12th-10th century B.C. Olmec This bowl is in a full, round shape with a small opening at the top. A potter carefully built this thin-walled vessel using a coil technique with a kaolin-like clay, finishing it with a light-colored slip and burnishing the surface, which displays small pitted losses. The vessel type is known as a tecomate (gourd”), named after the gourds that inspired their original form. Some of the earliest ceramic vessels in Mesoamerica took the form of gourds captured in the more durable material of fired clay. Tecomates were important receptacles for community feasts, and many were subsequently placed in burials as important funerary offerings. While numerous tecomates are said to be from highland sites such as Tlatilco and Las Bocas in central Mexico, the comparatively heavy, thick walls of this example suggest that it might be from one of the Gulf Coast Olmec sites such as San Lorenzo or La Venta. Further readingBenson, Elizabeth P., and Beatriz de