Female Figure 12th-9th century B.C. Tlatilco This solid, hand-modeled ceramic figurine is buff in color and painted with a red pigment. She has bulbous thighs and stunted, splayed arms, and a pair of long braids extends down her back. Although the figures navel, mouth, and right ear appear to be pierced (perhaps to support removable jewelry), her only adornment is a coiled necklace that conforms to the thick contours 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, dwarfs,