Early Nazca Polychrome Bowl

Three identical images of the Nazca monkey God encircle this splendid bowl. He wears a headdress with vegetable motifs and earrings of gold discs; in his hands he carries a knife-like weapon. Early Nazca religion centered on fertility deities, many of which were linked to the collection of trophy heads from defeated enemies. A bowl such as this was probably buried with a warrior. It vividly evokes a time and place, an entire way of life, very different from our own. Though the culture it shows us is alien, its aesthetics still speak clearly across time. – (K.095)