Aryballus

This small Inca aryballoid jar – or urpu – has a pointed base, an outflaring rim at the top of the narrow spout, and two sets of handles, one small set just below rim, and the second set of larger handles midway down vessel body. The vessel also has a small clay projection on the center front. The vessel has a band of Cusco-Inca style geometric diamond designs in thin black lines painted on red slip, and wider bands of brown around the interior of the rim and below the carination. This vessel shape is characteristic of the Inca (Inka), and is diagnostic for the Late Horizon; “urpus” were made in a wide range of sizes. This most quintessentially Inca vessel form was often copied by people who had been conquered by the Incas, who employed their own local ceramic traditions during manufacturing and when applying surface decoration. As in this example, Cusco-Inca urpus are generally smooth-surfaced redwares with fine linear designs, while Provincial Inca vessels exhibit a wider range of surface texture and color treatments.