Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Chavin / Cupisnique, ca. 900 to 200 BCE. A beautiful blackware libation bowl with a simple, elegant motif of repeated concentric circles. The rim bends very gently inward and a wide, half-circle spout projects from one side of the bowl. Ceramics from this culture are often grey-black in color and highly polished, stamped with double concentric circles which likely held a symbolic eternity or the spots on the elusive jaguar. Although the exact use of this particular bowl is unknown, its possible it was a ritualistic for sipping a sacramental brew made from San Pedro cactus. Size: 8.25" L x 2.75" H (21 cm x 7 cm)

The relationship between the Chavin culture and the Cupisnique culture is not well understood and the subject of ongoing archaeological investigations., and the names are sometimes used interchangeably. The Chavin people lived in the northern Highland Andes, and their capital, Chavin de Huantar, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The artwork of Chavin represents the first widespread style in the Andes. The center of Chavin de Huantar is a massive, flat-topped pyramid, surrounded by lower platforms. Between 1200 and 500 BCE the pyramid space was used for religious ceremonies. The Old Temple, constructed very early in the history of the site, consists of a series of passageways built around a circular courtyard; within were carved stone monuments showing jaguars, serpents, and other figures with transformative and/or anthropomorphic features. At the very center is a towering stone stela depicting an anthropomorphic figure with a jaguar head and a human body, believed to be Lanzon, the chief deity of Chavin. Researchers believe that worshippers ingested hallucinogenic drugs and then were led in the dark through the labyrinthine passageways - the eerie acoustics and complicated floor plan purposefully designed to disorient people before entering the central courtyard and coming abruptly face-to-face with the snarling features of the god. The San Pedro plant has hallucinogenic properties; ritual participants who ingested the substance may have perceived themselves transforming into one of several powerful animals such as jaguars or serpents.

Provenance: private Charlotte, North Carolina, USA collection; ex-Arte Primitivo, New York City, New York, USA; ex-Jean-Eugene Lions collection, #1748, Switzerland, acquired in the 1950s - 1970s

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#177011

Stable hair line fissure in base and radiating from rim, and surface pitting. Otherwise intact and excellent.