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Museum Collections - Ancient Peru - Chavín - Artifact #1
WHO: Chavín Culture
WHERE: Northern highlands, Peru
WHEN: Initial Period/Early Horizon, 950-700 B.C.
WHAT: This Chavín blackware stirrup-spout jar depicts a carved and incised crocodilian head surrounded by feather-like shapes. It probably combines two of the most powerful denizens of the jungle - the caiman and the harpy eagle. These creatures, as well as the jaguar, were the main deities of the Chavín religious pantheon and as such were depicted in various combinations on most of the art of this important Initial Period/Early Horizon culture.
HOW: Coil-built and hand-modelled; smoke-fired earthenware
MUSEUM: Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. G83.1.153
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