Maya (Mexico)

Moon Goddess, 600-900

The Island of Jaina off the Campeche coast served as the most important Maya cemetary yet found. Large numbers of mold-made statues and whistles have been retrieved. The mold-made front was often completed with a plain back. Small rattles or whistles like this hollow rattle figure of an elaborately dressed woman may have been used for festival events or to announce the deceased to the Underworld. Scrupulous attention to detail enhances the realism of these figurines. Similarities in modelling indicate contact with the Late Classic Nopiloa of Central Veracruz.

Jama-Coaque (Coastal Ecuador)

Vessel, 400 BCE-500 CE

A great variety of vessels from the Jama-Coaque area of the northern coast of Ecuador await investigation by scholars. This relatively early culture created elegant naturalistic figures with elaborate costumes and ornamentation applied in layers. The Chone style is characterized by the use of green and yellow paint on mold-made objects such as whistles, figures, and rattles. The graceful flaps behind the ears of the figure on this vessel may refer to bird-men images also common to the area. Other representations include grotesque anthropomorphic beings and men and women in feather costumes. The figural vessels served as tomb guardians amidst other offerings that accompanied the dead in burial. The mythical attributes of costume are symbols in a communication system between humans and deities in life and in death.

Chavín (North-Central Highlands, Peru)

Stirrup-spout Bottle, 1000-200 BCE

Peru’s first expansive civilization is named for its presumed capital, the city of Chavín de Huántar in the northern highlands. The Chavín people were contemporaries of the Olmec of Mesoamerica, and like the Olmec they worshipped a feline deity. Chavín artisans created cult images that incorporated elements from the tropical jaguar, combined with those of serpents, crocodiles, and mythical anthropomorphic creatures. Chavín pottery is usually monochromatic black with incised designs and textures that give it a solid and monumental quality. In this offering vessel with the typical Andean configuration of stirrup and spout, the body represents a face consisting of the fanged mouth of the jaguar, the S-shaped brown markings of the serpent, and the eyes of the falcon. Chavín composite deities described in elegant curvilinear designs and a complexity of appendages and concentric outlines are fundamental concepts of Peruvian artistry that have persisted for over two thousand years. The art associated with the Chavín cult spread to the coast of Peru and as far south as the Paracas Peninsula.

Inca (Cusco/Central Highlands, Peru)

Hair Headdress, 1470-1532

The Inca empire represents the last phase of Andean unity, cultural and artistic as well as political. As beneficiaries of the cultures that preceded them, the Inca produced stone monuments, textiles, ceramics, and metal objects of a distinctive and original style. From their capital city of Cusco, high in the Andes, they disseminated their own symbolic vocabulary throughout their vast domain. According to Spanish chronicles, the Inca rulers and noble class surrounded themselves with objects of luxury and splendor, particularly textiles. An entire class of women, called the Chosen Women, was responsible for making the clothing of the Inca family and army and for the production of large quantities of textiles that were used as offering goods. The headdress consists of a skull cap made of llama wool with about four pounds of human hair in 160 wrapped braids attached in two tiers. It was the ritual headdress of a priest, who would wear it during religious ceremonies to call forth the vital forces of nature symbolized by hair.