Nazca Vessel

Dated: 1-600

Cultural Context: Nazca style

Origin: Peru (South America)

Medium: Clay, Pigments

Technique: Modelling, Slip, Painted, Burnished

Dimensions: Height = 17.6 cm; Width = 10.5 cm; Depth = 13 cm

Inventory no.: 08067

Ceremonial sculptural vessel with a bridge handle depicting a bearded personage with circular lips blowing air into the wind instrument (antara) which he holds in his hands. His headdress is made of a net, as is his fishing-net cloak, inside which there are depictions of fish. The figure has body paint or tattoos on his arms, with bird and fish motifs. These attributes make it possible to identify the representation as an association of two figures: the fisherman and the musician.

Music played a significant role in Nazca rituals, which is why dancers, musicians and instruments appear regularly in the pictorial representations on their ceramics. This representation possibly alludes to rituals to improve the catch, as fishing played a very significant role in the economy of this coastal people, to the extent that their religion included marine deities such as the killer whale, which was one of the animals they most feared.