Object Details
Culture
Chimu-Inca (Peru)
Late Intermediate Period
Date
AD 1470-1532
Medium
Redware
Dimensions
6 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches (16.5 x 18.4 cm)
Credit Line
Transfer from the Sociology – Anthropology Department. Spring 1956.
Object
Number
56.161
This double-chambered, redware Chimu-Inca whistle pot has a bird perched on top of the blind spout. (…)
This double-chambered, redware Chimu-Inca whistle pot has a bird perched on top of the blind spout. A characteristically late flat handle with impressed geometric designs connects the two spouts of the vessel, which is decorated with white slip paint on a red ground.
Birds were commonly represented on pre-Columbian pots from Peru; they are even more common on whistle pots, perhaps due to the similarity in the sounds produced by these vessels to bird calls. The sound of the pot’s whistle may be considered to be the pot’s “voice,” and producing such sounds may help to communicate with the supernatural world.
