# Model Depicting a Ritual Center

- By: Nayarit (Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, Mexico)
- Date: 100–800 CE
- Medium: Earthenware and pigment
- Classification: Sculpture
- Dimensions: 21.3 × 35.6 × 33.8 cm (8 7/16 × 14 1/16 × 13 5/16 in.)
- Culture: Nayarit state
- Credit line: Gift of Ethel and Julian Goldsmith
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/75238)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/a70fb7dc-2024-0ca3-989f-b28d0c39c2ea/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In West Mexico, chiefdoms and statelike societies flourished between A.D. 100 and 800. Advanced agriculture, extensive trade routes, and elaborate religious festivals echoed developments in other regions of ancient Mesoamerica. The distinctive West Mexican sculptures were often included as offerings in tombs that illustrate important themes of life and the afterlife. This model of a circular ceremonial center depicts houselike temples, populated by flute players, a drummer, conch-shell trumpeters, dancers, women with children, and animals. A masked figure—likely the ruler—stands atop the central stepped pyramid.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0