Bottle, Feline face

A rectangular, stylized feline face with exaggerated fangs decorates one side of this globular bottle with a short neck. The front legs of the feline protrude below the face. The other side of the bottle is undecorated. The surface of the bottle appears to have been burnished. There is evidence of an indentation around the middle of the bottle, possibly an indication of where the top and bottom, shaped by hand separately, were joined. Evidence of two handles, now missing, can be seen on either side of the incised feline decoration in the four roughly oval aberrations on the upper sloping edge of the bottle’s surface. The missing handles may have represented ears for the feline face.

Feline face motifs are common in both Chavín and Paracas art (see, for example, MMA 1979.206.1148). The faces are stylized with exaggerated teeth and appear to have a mythological meaning in both cultures. The feline decoration evident on this bottle is characteristic of widespread designs found at Ica Valley formative period Paracas sites. The face on this vessel is strongly influenced by Chavín artistic tradition, but the teeth have been further stylized into bands that do not break the lip line rather than curving into points. This slight deviation from the Chavín artistic canon, combined with the simplicity of the design, indicates a date from between the Early (700–500 B.C.) and Middle (500–300 B.C.) Paracas ceramic phases.

The Paracas ceramic tradition, like Chavín pottery, favored incised decorations. These incised designs were then painted with a variety of colors made from iron oxides for red, yellow, and brown, and several other minerals including copper minerals for green and blue, and silicate clays for white and black. This paint was mixed with a resin to help it bind to the ceramic surface and achieve a shine. Ceramicists did not use potters’ wheels or molds, instead they built up the clay by hand. This vessel was likely constructed using the paddle and anvil technique, though coiling was also common. The paddle and anvil technique uses an existing vessel or other mold to build up the base of the new vessel, then clay is added to that base to build up the sides. A wooden paddle was used to manipulate the clay and a smooth stone was used at the same time to keep the clay in place.

The Paracas culture, named for the peninsula on the coast of Peru where large mortuary sites have been found, existed on the south coast of Peru from 700 B.C.–A.D. 1. The archeological evidence for Paracas comes from two major groups of burials, known as Paracas Cavernas and Paracas Necropolis. Little is known about who these people were, or where and how they lived. It is likely that the vessel was part of a funerary offering, though it may have been used in household prior to being interred. The bottle may have been new when placed in a burial or the damage to the handles may indicate prior everyday use.

A wide range of objects have been recovered from Paracas burials, including a wealth of textiles and ceramics. The dry climate of the Peruvian coast aided preservation of delicate and organic materials in the burials. The Paracas style (700 B.C.– A.D. 1) developed roughly contemporarily with the Chavín culture (1200–500 B.C.) whose cultural center is in the Ancash region of Peru north of the modern capital of Lima. The Chavín artistic style was very influential in Paracas art. Chavín art is known for, among other things, highly detailed stylized incised designs across all mediums including stone, metal (see, for example, MMA 2003.274a, b), and ceramics. Chavín style evolved as it was disseminated out from the center at Chavín de Huantar, likely through trade of luxury materials. The result, between the Chinca and Acari valleys in southern Peru, was a distinct Paracas style, which archeologists use to differentiate Paracas from contemporary surrounding cultures and from the Nazca, who appear to occupy the area subsequent to the Paracas (A.D. 100–700).

It is thought that textiles helped to disseminate the Chavín style throughout the central Andes. Textiles are the foundational craft in the Andes and appeared well before any ceramic tradition. Examples of this rich textile tradition within the Paracas culture, and its evolution from a Chavín style, begin with objects like a painted cotton fragment (MMA 1987.394.704), and culminate in a wealth of Paracas mantles like embroidered fragments (e.g. MMA 33.149.25). Paracas mummy bundles, consisting of many heavily embroidered mantles, combined with the dry climate of the Paracas peninsula which preserved them, has resulted in a wealth of preserved embroidery fragments.


Sasha Nixon, MA Candidate, Bard Graduate Center, 2017

Other Paracas Feline Face Objects

64.228.90
64.228.112
64.228.144
1976.287.24
62.266.72

Objects from other Peruvian cultures not mentioned in the text that have feline faces
1978.412.203
1978.412.210

Sources and Additional Reading

Burger, Richard L. Chavin and the origins of Andean Civilization . London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

DeLeonardis Lisa. "Encoded Process, Embodied Meaning in Paracas Post-Fired Painted Ceramics." In Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Cathy Costin. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections (2016), pp. 129-166.

Druc, Isabelle C. "Ceramic Diversity in Chavín De Huantar, Peru." Latin American Antiquity 15, no. 3 (2004), pp. 344-63.

Eerkens Jelmer W, et al. "Iron Isotope Analysis of Red and Black Pigments on Pottery in Nasca, Peru." Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 6 (2014), pp. 241-254.

Proulx Donald A. "Paracas and Nasca: Regional Cultures on the South Coast of Peru." In Handbook of South American Archaeology , eds. Helaine Silverman and William Isbell, pp. 563-584. Springer Press, 2008.

Sawyer Alan. Ancient Peruvian Ceramics: The Nathan Cummings Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966.

Silverman Helaine. "The Paracas Problem: Archaeological Perspectives." In Paracas Art and Architecture: Object and Context in South Coastal Peru , edited by Anne Paul, pp. 348-415. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991.

Stone Rebecca. Art of the Andes: From Chaví­n to Inca. New York: Thames & Hudson World of Art Series, 2012.