Pre-Columbian, Peru (North Coast), Jequetepeque district, Chavin culture, ca. 1200 to 500 BCE. A grey stone mortar used for grinding hallucinogenic drugs. The mortar is in the form of a square with a triangular handle projecting from one side. Inside the square is a rounded bowl with clear scratch marks from use. Around the bowl are densely-carved incised motifs: abstract geometric patterns of steps, labyrinths, and diagonal lines. Red cinnabar pigment is in the incised lines, making the motifs pop with color. Size: 4.5" W x 3" H (11.4 cm x 7.6 cm)

The Chavin people lived in the northern Highland Andes, and their capital, Chavin de Huantar, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The artwork of Chavin represents the first widespread style in the Andes. Mortars and pestles were part of the elaborate battery of objects carefully manufactured by ancient Andeans in order to ingest a ground drug known as vilca or huilca, found in southern Peru and Bolivia, and obtained from the beans of the tree Anadenanthera colubrina. We know of these trays from burials, where they were placed as offerings and perhaps to provision the dead alongside inhalation tubes and other paraphernalia.

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

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#123825

Light surface scratching as shown.