Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Chavin culture, ca. 1200 to 600 BCE. This is an incredible hand-built pottery vessel that is molded with raised serpents on the midsection. The deep umber brown vessel rests on a flat base with a steeply carinated edge, broad rounded shoulder, and a tall neck that flares slightly at the rim. There is a pair of curled serpents on both sides, their bodies coiled in a loose spiral, their heads at the center, forked tongues flicking out. Their stripped skin patterns and eyes are incised into the surface, and a separate neck and head of a third snake is positioned vertically between the coiled pair. The serpent (alongside the jaguar) is one of the most represented animals in the Chavin pantheon of mythological zoomorphic creatures. Snakes are representative of the underworld and renewal of life - the shedding of their skins symbolizing rebirth. Size: 6.6" W x 9" H (16.8 cm x 22.9 cm)

Provenance: private Elkton, Oregon, USA collection, ex-Arte Primitivo, New York, USA

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#169351

Minor chips and nicks to rim and abrasions to base, otherwise intact and excellent. Arte Primitivo label on the base.