Bottle with Runners

This ceramic bottle was made by a master craftsman of the Moche culture, which thrived on Peru’s North Coast between the third and ninth centuries A. D. Vessels such as these are called “fineline,” so named for the detailed compositions delicately painted in red slip (a suspension of clay and/or other colorants in water) on a white background slip. The white slip covers the natural reddish color of the clay. The globular shape of the vessel’s body provided an ample surface for artists to depict scenes ranging from warfare and religious ritual to fishing and sports. This bottle features four figures running, each holding a bag in one hand (see Sawyer, 1966: 48–49, for a rollout drawing). The band at the base of the vessel is painted red, possibly to indicate the ground upon which the figures are running.

The figures include a hummingbird with a long beak; a butterfly with an extended proboscis; a hawk or other raptor with a hooked beak; and a fox with a long snout and bushy tail. All four figures wear animal-pelt headbands, secured with a cloth tied under the chin. The two larger figures, the hummingbird and the hawk, have headdresses featuring circular disks with scalloped edges, whereas the other two figures have rectangular or trapezoidal forms projecting from their headbands. Both types likely represent ornaments made of metal. All four runners have belts; the belts on those with disk headdress ornaments depict comma-shaped ulluchu fruits (McClelland, 2008), whereas the other two belts simply have red or white spots. All runners wear red loincloths and all have body paint on their faces, wrists, knees and feet.

This type of vessel is commonly called a stirrup-spout bottle—the shape of the spout recalls the stirrup on a horse's saddle—and it was a much favored form on Peru's northern coast for about 2,500 years. Although the importance and symbolism of this distinctive shape is still puzzling to scholars, it has been suggested that the double-branch/single-spout configuration may have prevented evaporation of liquids, and/or that it was convenient for carrying. Early in the first millennium A.D., the Moche elaborated stirrup-spout bottles into sculptural shapes depicting a wide range of subjects, including human figures, animals, and plants worked with a great deal of naturalism. About 500 years later, bottle chambers became predominantly globular, as in the present example, providing large surfaces for painting complex, multi-figure scenes.

The Moche (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from 200–850 A.D., centuries before the rise of the Incas. Over the course of some six centuries the Moche built thriving regional centers from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to perhaps as far north as the Piura River, near the modern border with Ecuador, developing coastal deserts into rich farmlands and drawing upon the abundant maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. Although scholars are divided on the subject of whether the Moche formed a single centralized political entity, they clearly shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

Runners are often depicted in Moche art. A striking pair of gold ear ornaments in the Met’s collection (66.196.40–.41) depict anthropomorphized owls rendered in tesserae of blue and green stone, with additions of reddish Spondylus shell and gold detailing. Sometimes runners hold what appear to be small bags (see, for example, illustrations in Donnan and McClelland, 1999). The significance of this theme is unclear, but there are several consistent features. For example, runners usually wear only belts and loincloths. In some variations, they wear short skirts, but they rarely wear tunics. Individuals who hold bags never carry weapons. The figures are often depicted in pairs with one wearing the circular headdress ornament and the other the trapezoidal adornment. The circular headdress ornament is found only on runners. The runners also have a band or rope-like element that seems to emanate from under the headdress, extend down the back, and is tucked under the belt. The precise nature of this feature is unknown as is its function. While the significance of this scene may be elusive, the large number of ceramics depicting these bag-carrying runners suggests that this was an important event. The runners are often shown in a desert setting, as indicated by the representation of plants known to grow only in an arid environment. Were they transporting something of value from one community to another across a desert landscape?

Runners are not always depicted in the act of running. Ceramics depicting seated individuals adorned with the accoutrements of runners are known (see, for example, another vessel in the collections of the Met, accession number 63.112.4). Whether these individuals would have been identified as a type of ritual runner by Moche observers, or whether they would have been seen simply as distinguished individuals, who happen to run on occasion, remains an open question.


References and Further Reading

Donnan, Christopher B. Moche Portraits from Ancient Peru. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. See especially Chapter 4.

Donnan, Christopher B. “Moche State Religion.” In New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Luis Jaime Castillo. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2010. See especially pp. 47–69. Donnan, Christopher B. and Donna McClelland. Moche Fineline Painting, Its Evolution and Its Artists. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1999.

Golte, Jürgen. Moche cosmología y sociedad. Lima, Cusco: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos-Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 2009.

Lavallée, Daniéle. Les représentations animales dans la céramique Mochica. Paris: Université de Paris. Mémoires de l’Instiute d’Ethnologie – Institut d’Ethnologie. Musée de L’Homme, 1970.

McClelland, Donna. “Ulluchu: An Elusive Fruit,” in The Art and Archeology of the Moche, edited by Steve Bourget and Kimberly l. Jones, pp. 43–65. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.

Sawyer, Alan Reed. Ancient Peruvian Ceramics: The Nathan Cummings Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966, p. 48–49.