Museum Collections - Ancient Peru - Chimú - Artifact #4

Blackware effigy vessel - Chimú

WHO: Chimú culture

WHERE: North coast, Peru

WHEN: Middle Horizon/Late Intermediate Period, A.D. 900 -1450

WHAT: Blackware mould-made effigy vessels such as this one were made by the thousands by Chimú potters. The imagery of these ceramics is often very similar to that of their ancestors - the Moche - showing a continuity of religious symbols on the north coast of Peru. This religious imagery includes sea creatures, such as the manta ray and ducks, as well as a jungle creature, the monkey on the spout.

HOW: Mould-made earthenware; smoke-fired.

MUSEUM: Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. G83.1.171



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