Chavin Culture 1200 BC-400 BC

An exquisite and important Chavin ceramic masterpiece depicting a tropical bird inquisitively glancing to its side.The Chavin culture (900-200 B.C.) was a kind of a mother culture of the Andes. During the so-called starting periodthat preceded the Chavin stage, Peru was divided into numerous small cultural circles that came into contactvery rarely. Chav n ceramics often exhibited complicated and exquisite imagery reminiscent of the types of mythologicaldesigns seen in Chav n sculpture and textiles.Chav n had easy access to the coasts, central highlands, and Amazon, allowing for a great deal of intercultural exchange. Tropical birds largely from the Amazon lowlands, along with pumas, lived throughout the Andes mountainsand were believed to represent supernatural influences. Probably the most important structures at Chav n deHuantar, for example, redirected a stream through an underground labyrinth that re-created the roaring sound ofa jaguar for pilgrims. They were under the influence of powerful hallucinogens as they made their way through theceremonial centre of Chav n de Huantar.

Chav n-style pottery spread throughout much of the Peruvian highlands and coast in the first millennia B.C.

Characterized by bottles with straight spouts and bowls with straight sides and relatively flat bottoms, Chavin ceramics exhibited extraordinary skill. Colour was seldom used, save for the occasional red and silvery-black paint. Instead, decorative techniques, such as rocker stamping (a technique in which a toothed instrument is impressed into soft clay and then pivoted at one end), burnishing, incision, and modelling were used to create textural contrasts and depth. In the example shown here, a depiction of a bird, a popular motif in Chavin

art, appears in low relief and dominates the body of the bottle. Its smooth and shiny surface stands in striking contrast to the coarse and stippled appearance present on the remainder of the vessel. Ceramics in this style have been found in the galleries and temple plazas at the site of Chavin de Huantar, and are associated with ritual and a veneration of the natural world.