Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Cupisnique Chavin, ca. 600 to 200 BCE. An enormous carved greenstone mortar and pestle created for grinding materials as part of the ritual ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs, the mortar with thick walls that slightly flare and are incised (though possibly later) with abstract figural depictions of profile jaguar headed deities and/or lords donning elaborate headdresses as well as expressive birds, felines, and other zoomorphic forms. A fabulous example from this ancient Peruvian culture. Size: mortar measures 11.625" in diameter x 6.75" H (29.5 cm x 17.1 cm); pestle measures 15.625" L x 2.125" in diameter at wide end (39.7 cm x 5.4 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. The center of Chavin de Huantar is a massive, flat-topped pyramid, surrounded by lower platforms. Between 1200 and 500 BCE the pyramid space was used for religious ceremonies. The Old Temple, constructed very early in the history of the site, consists of a series of passageways built around a circular courtyard; within were carved stone monuments showing jaguars, serpents, and other figures with transformative and/or anthropomorphic figures. At the very center is a towering stone stela depicting an anthropomorphic figure with a jaguar head and a human body, believed to be Lanzon, the chief deity of Chavin. Researchers believe that worshippers ingested hallucinogenic drugs, in part using spoons like this one, and then were led in the dark through the labyrinthine passageways before entering the central courtyard and coming abruptly face-to-face with the snarling features of the god.

Provenance: ex collection of Alan Davis, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA acquired from Lothar Heubel, Stadtsparkasse, Germany

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#124510

Minor chips on rim and on pestle, loss to end of pestle as shown, incised iconography possibly modern or refreshed in modern times. Root marks on underside of base.