Peru, Middle Horizon, Wari Culture / 770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
Container in the form of a Sacrificer
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Container in the form of a Sacrificer as wood (Peru, Middle Horizon, Wari Culture · 770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)).
Traces of cinnabar, a toxic mercuric sulfide, are visible on the container's surface.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this wood as wood and red pigment (cinnabar).
The museum's collection notes: This container assumes the shape of a magnificent, feline-headed, supernatural sacrificer who draws a knife across the throat of the human it holds in its lap. Severed human heads hang from the feline's belt and dangle by the trachea at the back of its headdress. Sacrifice had a place in Wari religious practice, probably as an unusual and exceptionally precious offering made to entice the benevolence of cosmic forces. Indeed, colonial-period Andean people believed that death was a prerequisite for the renewal of the world.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtContainer in the form of a SacrificerOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.