Chimu culture, 1000-1470 AD. A burnished black ware vessel with funicular neck, conical base and body formed as three chambers with pierced lugs to the shoulders; the body with three lozengiform panels, bilinear border and pelletted detail. 500 grams, 16.5 cm (6 1/2"). Ex Hiller collection, Essex, UK; acquired in the 1950s-1960s. The Chimu built a capital at Chan Chan, just north of Trujillo. Chan Chan is the largest pre-Columbian city in Peru, covering about 28 sq km, and is estimated to have housed about 50,000 people. Gone, for the most part, is the technique of painting pots. Instead, they were fired by a simpler method than that used by the Moche, producing the typical blackware seen in many Chimu pottery collections. Despite its poorer quality, this pottery still shows us life in the Chimu kingdom. Although the quality of the ceramics declined, metallurgy developed and various alloys, including bronze, were worked. The Chimu were also exceptionally fine goldsmiths. It is as an urban society that the Chimu are best remembered. Their huge capital contained approximately 10,000 dwellings of varying quality and importance. Buildings were decorated with friezes, the designs molded into the mud walls, and the more important areas were layered with precious metals. There were storage bins for food and other products from their empire, an empire which stretched along the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil to Chancay. There were huge walk-in wells, canals, workshops and temples. The royal dead were buried in mounds with a wealth of funerary offerings. The Chimu was a highly organised society - it must have been to have built and supported a city such as Chan Chan. Chimor was conquered 50 years before the arrival of the Spanish, so there were plenty of survivors from pre-Inca times to dictate the particulars of the daily life of the Chimú before their conquest by Inca Tupac Inca Yupanqui. Chimor grew out of the remnants of the Moche culture. TimeLine Auctions Ltd arranges printed catalogue rostrum Auctions, eAuctions and Timed Auctions where we offer antiquities, ancient artefacts / artifacts, antiques, collectibles, coins, medals and books for public sale.

Fine condition, base chipped.