Pre-Columbian, South Coast Peru, Paracas Cavernas, ca. 500 BCE. An intriguing pottery vessel of a sizable form with a round but stable base, a carinated midsection, a hemispherical top, and a pair of conical spouts connected by a strap handle. The stone-burnished vessel features a tri-color helical register coursing around the midsection as well as a pair of sinuous red-and-beige helices on the shoulder. The base of the front spout depicts an abstract anthropomorphic head - with red eyes, a bulbous nose, and vertical brown stripes - surmounting six octopus-style tentacles with curled tips. A unique and interesting example of ancient Chavin artistry! Size: 8.5" W x 6.5" H (21.6 cm x 16.5 cm)
Little is known about the Paracas people, and what little we do know comes from a 1920s archaeological excavation of the Paracas Cavernas, shaft tombs containing multiple burials, many of which contained ceramics like this one, probably for holding offerings or provisioning the dead in the afterlife. Their iconography is linear and stylistic, based on formal figures whose species, when zoomorphic, often cannot be identified. Motifs on their ceramics mirror those on the textiles that they used to wrap their dead and probably represent gods or mythical figures of power.
Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private T. Misenhimer collection, Beverly Hills, California, USA
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#150631
Condition
Repair to handle and front spout, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Abrasions and minor nicks to base, body, spouts, and handle, with chips and fading to original pigmentation, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout.