Female Figure 12th-9th century B.C. Tlatilco This solid, hand-modeled ceramic figurine is made of reddish tan clay and painted with a red pigment. The wide hips, bare torso, and hemmed skirt indicate the figure is female, and the incisions on the posterior of the head represent a traditionally feminine coiffure. The small of the back is concave and the belly protrudes in profile. A central vertical pendant adorns the back of the neck.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, dwarf