Cat-Shaped Vessel from Peru, c.100-700 CE: this vessel was crafted in the shape of a wild cat (possibly a jaguar, puma, or pampas cat) with a bird perched atop its head
This vessel is more than 1,900 years old, and it can be traced back to the northern highlands of Peru. It's crafted in the Recuay style, which is an artistic tradition that existed from about 200-700 CE.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The first millennium CE was a period of expansive artistic creativity and strong stylistic regionalism in Peru. Several communities in the northern highlands shared a distinctive tradition that is known today as the Recuay. This tradition emerged following the disintegration of the Cupisnique and Chavín cultures, which thrived between 1200 and 500 BCE and whose art featured depictions of ferocious beings and predatory animals.
Around 200 CE a new style of pottery emerged—one that we recognize as Recuay today—and spread rapidly throughout the mountainous part of the Ancash region, a territory located between the temperate valleys of the Pacific coast and the tropical forests of Amazonia.
This particular motif (a feline depicted with a bird on its head or back) also appears in some of the artwork produced by the Paracas culture, which is an older tradition that existed along the southern coast of Peru in 800-400 BCE.
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin: Clay Vessel
Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Art of the Recuay
Cleveland Museum of Art: Similar Cat-Shaped Vessel with a Coatimundi on its Head
Time Magazine: Why Indigenous Artifacts Should be Returned to Indigenous Communities
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