Female Figure. Culture: Tlatilco. Dimensions: H. 4 11/16 in. (11.8 cm). Date: 10th century B.C..This solid, hand-modeled ceramic figurine is nude except for a headband that continues around to the back of the head. It has long, loose hair indicated down the back to waist level, with breasts and buttocks only faintly indicated. The clay is yellow-tan in color and painted red. Sculpted some three millennia ago in the Valley of Mexico, this figurine belongs to a group of ceramic effigies known collectively as the Tlatilco "pretty ladies." Depicting females with large heads, small waists, and prominent hips, these handheld sculptures present a fairly standardized body type and are typically fired to red, buff, or brown tones. As the popular embodiments of an ideal feminine form, the Tlatilco "pretty ladies" are part of a centuries-long tradition in which eccentricities and religious imagery predominate. Featuring hunchbacks, dwarfs, contorted acrobats, two-headed women, and conjoined twi