Zoomorphic Whistling Pot

This vessel is a double-chambered Chimu redware whistling pot with a ribbon handle. The animal head on the whistling spout has oval eyes, small round ears, a broken nose or beak, a small round hole in the top of its head, and two legs or paws that are modeled onto stippled background panels. The break in the animal’s snout allows the interior whistling mechanism to be clearly seen. This piece was likely meant to be blackware but suffered from poor maintenance of the reducing atmosphere necessary to obtain a consistent dark black color during firing, since the bottom of the pot is blackware while the top of the spouts are red, indicating firing in the presence of oxygen (oxidizing environment).