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Chavin Culture Northern Peru STIRRUP-SPOUT VESSEL, ca. 1220 - 1000 B.C. Terra-cotta Height 9 1/2 inches Museum purchase, 1973.23
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To put this Chavin stirrup-handled vessel in perspective we first need to look at the time
frame in which it was created some 3000 plus years ago, somewhere between 1200 and
1000 B. C.. The Chavin united the pre-Colombian Peruvian world for the first time about
then. The Chavin name comes from an archaeological site which was discovered in this
century called Chavin de Huantar, which is located in the
north central highlands of Peru. However, it was a site, because of the massive
earthworks that housed the temples of the sun and the moon, had been seen by people
for several thousand years. This is done in a style that is particular to one of the regions
of the northern highlands of Peru. The black surface is very typical of Chavin pottery.
They were done through a process which is called smudge firing, a low-fire process that
literally the smoke or the smudge from the fire would help to color what would otherwise
be a lightly colored ceramic pot. And very typical of Peruvian pottery is what we call a
stirrup-spout handle, and these would literally have been created to carry liquids of some
kind. One thing that's important to note is that these works like all of the other works in the
pre-Colombian gallery and in many works from throughout the museum, these were
created as funerary works. They were meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife.
They were meant to be a way that you were assured of having those essential elements,
in this case whatever liquids might be carried in this vessel, so that when you arrived in
the next world you would be properly cared for and be properly accompanied by those
items that were most essential.
Alexander Lee Nyerges
