Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche Culture, ca. 100 to 500 CE. Wow! An incredible, well-preserved wood poporo in the form of a seated warrior lord holding a shield in one hand and a club in the other. The figure is hand-carved and has an excellent level of detail - look at the right hand where it holds the club, and how it is carved to rest on the hip. The face is broad, with a large nose and small mouth, and the figure wears a rounded, large headdress that has been carved to look like tufted feathers. Shell - white, red, and orange - stud the body, giving it eyes, earrings, an apron, and a pectoral; the base that the figure sits on is also studded with shell. On his back are two smaller anthropomorphic figures made of shell. Size: 3" W x 5.5" H (7.6 cm x 14 cm)

From the earliest times, people in the Andes had a tradition of using coca leaves for ritual purposes. They were often ingested by placing some of the leaves in the mouth and adding a small quantity of powdered lime, ground from seashells. The poporo was a special vessel made to hold the lime. Like this example, they were often elaborately carved and decorated, with a figural form. Warfare and warriors are recurrent themes in Moche art, a strong testimony to the violence of Moche society, which was riven by intense inter-rivalry competition. There was a ritual element to Moche warfare too: prisoners had to be captured to make sacrifices to the gods. This figure seems to be a lordly soldier rather than an ordinary warrior, as the latter are usually depicted wearing conical helmets.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Westermann collection, Germany

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#123566

Some of the shell discs are missing, as shown.