CENTRAL ANDEAN CERAMICS

invited essay, Grove Encyclopedia of Latin American Art & Architecture, Tom Cummins, ed., Oxford University
Press (in press)

Juliet Wiersema, Assistant Professor, Ancient American and Spanish Colonial Art History,
Department of Art & Art History, University of Texas, San Antonio

Ceramics is one of the best-preserved remnants of ancient cultures. Its permanence makes it
especially important in our understanding of extinct cultures without text-based histories. We look to
ceramics for information about chronology, subsistence, trade, and exchange. From ceramics we can
also derive information about physiognomy, gender, dress, hairstyles, flora, fauna, architecture, and
industries like fishing, weaving, and metallurgy, as well as codified systems of visual communication.
From pottery, we also can tease out social information such as group affiliation and socioeconomic
status. Pottery emerges with increased sedentism and served various functions including the storage
and transport of food or liquid, cooking, brewing, and serving. Pottery was also likely used in display
and exchange (Hoopes and Barnett 1995: 3).
In the Central Andes, potters crafted both utilitarian ware and fine ware objects. The coarser
utilitarian vessels were put toward preparing, storing, and consuming food while fine ware objects
often took sculptural form and acted as a three-dimensional surface for communicating ideas,
information, ideologies, narratives, and group identity. V. Gordon Childe observed that the earliest
pots replicated natural forms including gourds and baskets while the first decorative treatments
underscored a connection to the pots’ organic predecessors (1951: 79).
While the majority of objects made from clay were open or semi-closed containers, potters also
made figurines, ceramic masks, and acoustical instruments, including ocarinas, panpipes, trumpets or
bugles, drums, and whistling vessels, which functioned as both instruments and containers. Pre-
ceramic sites such as Ventarrón on Peru’s north coast did not produce ceramic objects yet
constructed their monumental pyramid mound with blocks of nearby river clay.
Our knowledge of Andean pottery comes from unprovenienced (looted) and provenienced
(scientifically excavated) sources. The majority of fine ware vessels attributed to the Central Andes
stem from clandestine digs undertaken over the course of more than five centuries. Tens of
thousands of unprovenienced pots are held today in museums and private collections worldwide.
Provenienced examples result from scientific archaeological excavation and are especially valuable
because they preserve information about an object’s original find spot and its associated context.
Provenience, or original context, is also important in the attribution of pottery. Local or region styles
are identified based on morphology, technology, and external decorative style. Often, styles take the
name of the area or river valley where they were first discovered. Secure attributions allow us to
create ceramic typologies which then facilitates educated guesses about the origins of pieces in
museums and private collections without secure provenience.

Time and Space

In the Americas, the earliest known pottery comes from eastern Amazonia (Roosevelt 1995:
115-116). Sites of note include Caverna de Pedra Pintada, Taperinha, and Monte Alegre (7,500-5,000
BP), near Santarém, where simple soot-covered bowls made of oxidized sand- or shell-tempered clay
with incised decoration have been found (Roosevelt 1999: 316-319). The Mina culture, on the south
shore of the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil, and the Alaka culture, in today’s Guyana, were also
precocious producers of pottery (6,000-4,500 BP; Roosevelt 1999: 319). In northern Colombia, the
sites of San Jacinto (4,000-3,700 BC, Oyuela-Caycedo 1995; Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani 2005),

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Monsú, and Puerto Hormiga (3,500-3,000 BC) also preserve evidence of early pottery production (see
Quilter 2014: 114).
In the Central Andes, pottery emerged a bit later, around 4,000 BC with the Valdivia culture
in Ecuador (see Quilter 2015: 114). Valdivia ceramics are well-made, well-fired, and highly standardized
(Raymond 2008: 83), suggesting an established tradition. It is from Valdivia that we have the earliest
known representations of human figures made from clay (c. 3,500 BC; see Valdivia figurine).
Interestingly, pottery production in the Central Andes pre-dates metallurgy by about 2,000 years
(Aldenderfer et al. 2008). Central Andean pottery production nonetheless post-dates textile
production by around 5,000 years (Lynch et al. 1985).

Materials and Technology

Pottery making in the ancient Central Andes can, by our standards today, be considered a
high art form, requiring great knowledge, skill, and ingenuity. Various techniques were used to form,
decorate, and fire ceramic works. The way in which different groups chose to combine these
techniques led to the creation of distinct regional styles (see Regional Styles in this essay). Glazed
wares are unknown in the Central Andes until the Spanish colonial period (see Spanish colonial period
glazed ware). Kilns before this time did not reach the high temperatures required for vitrification. The
potter’s wheel, as we understand it today, was also unknown but potter’s plates have been
excavated from various ancient sites.
Many ceramic wares were made of terracotta, which contains iron. When fired, terracotta
produces a range of colors from orange to dark brown (Donnan 1992: 13). A white clay, kaolinite, was
used by potters in Ancash and Peru’s north highlands (Lau 2011: 138). Kaolinite, an alumina-containing
clay, produces wares which are white or grey in color (see Recuay vessel).
Potters created ceramic pastes by mixing clays from different sources. By combining clays with
distinct characteristics, potters could achieve a recipe ideal for each vessel produced. Mixing clays
also reduced the likelihood of cracking and breakage in the kiln (Wiersema and Stanish unpub. ms;
see also Arnold 1998: 356). Temper, including sand, shell, crushed stone, plant fibers, or ceramic
sherds, was often added to change the properties of clay. In collecting raw materials, potters tended
to stay within a radius of 1 km of their workshop and were not likely to go beyond a radius of 7 km
(Arnold 1998:356-357).
Potters engaged a range of techniques to form ceramic wares. Techniques included coiling,
paddle and anvil, hand modeling, and the use of molds. Often, several of these techniques were used
simultaneously. Coiling was employed by chronologically early and later groups. To create a coiled
pot, long ropes of clay were affixed to a hand-formed vessel base and then coiled in successive
ascending rows or in a spiral pattern. The coils were then blended together by pinching, scraping, or
paddling. The use of paddle and anvil lends itself to the production of large vessels. Potters working in
this technique today use a wooden paddle, a smooth stone, a ceramic plate or turntable (which
remains static while the potter moves around it), and a basic concave mold. Clay is shaped around the
mold and the resulting forms are left to dry in the sun, a process which may take between eight hours
and three days, depending upon the size of the form. Once dry, the form is placed on the turntable
and is shaped as the potter paddles the outside of the vessel while supporting the inside of the vessel
with a stone. Contrary to our potter’s wheel which allows the potter to be stationary, ancient potters
moved around the fixed vessel (Wiersema and Stanish, unpub. Ms.). Turntables have been identified
in the archaeological record, dating to as early as c. 500 BC (Donnan 1992:14). Pottery was also
produced through hand modeling and with the aid of molds. From the Central Andes, one-, two-, and
multiple-part molds are known (for multiple-part mold, see Anders et al. 1998). To make a mold,
potters often created a mold matrix from solid clay (a potter might also work from a fired vessel).
Once dry, a negative image of the matrix was produced by pressing two clay slabs over the matrix.

2
Once dried, the two halves were removed and fired then used as molds (see UCLA FMCH X-86.3773a,
b, c). Mold-made pottery allowed for efficiency and standardization and required less skill than hand
modeling. While many pots of identical morphology could be produced quickly with molds, surviving
examples of vessels made from the same mold suggest there was an interest in differentiating each
vessel through distinctive decorative designs or techniques.

Decorative Materials and Techniques

Post-firing decorative techniques include the application of a resin-based pigment, seen in
Paracas ceramics (see drum, MMA 1979.206.1097). Before the pot was fired, exterior areas were
delineated with incised lines. Once fired, these areas were filled in with a colored resin. While colors
were pure they were not fast and could flake off with heat or handling. Another post-fire technique
was the application of liquid plant extracts. These extracts, when heated over an open fire, turned
light black in color revealing a subtle design on the vessel’s surface. This kind of design can be seen in
the ceramics of Vicús and Recuay (Donnan 1992: 21-22).
A technique that produced a similar effect is known as resist or negative painting. After a pot
had been fired in an oxidizing atmosphere, a resist substance (wax, resin, grease, or slip) was applied
to the vessel’s surface to create a pattern or design. The entire vessel was then dipped in or washed
with a coating of organic pigment. When fired again or scorched, all sections of the pot not covered
by the resist material took on a hazy graphite color, creating a “negative” design that contrasted with
those areas covered by the resist material (Lau 2011: 138-140; see also Donnan 1992:22; see Vicús
vessel, NMAI 243523).
The list of pre-fire decorative techniques used by potters in the ancient Central Andes is long
and varied. On a single pot, many techniques were often combined. The application of slip, a liquid
suspension of clay particles in water, allowed potters to add fields of color to a vessel’s exterior. In
contrast to post-fire pigment, this technique was permanent and was not compromised by heat or
handling. A vessel might exhibit a single slip color, as seen in many Topará ceramics (see Topará
vessels, MMA 1976.287.30 and 63.232.55), or might exhibit two colors, as seen in many Moche
vessels. In addition to monochrome and bi-chrome, other cultures developed and perfected
polychrome slips. An excellent example of this can be seen in Nasca ceramics, where up to 12 distinct
colors have been identified (Proulx 2008: 572-573).
Other decorative techniques included incision, which creates two-dimensional designs on a
vessel’s exterior. Excision, meanwhile, produces areas of low relief. Stamping allowed an image or a
pattern to project slightly from a vessel’s surface. Stamps, made of fired clay or from actual objects
like shells, were placed on the outside of a vessel while the clay was still wet. The potter then reached
into the vessel, and pushed the clay wall into the stamp, resulting in a relief image on the vessel’s
exterior (Donnan 1992: 18). Potters also used stamping paddles which created repeated, often
geometric, designs in low relief. Appliques and modeled elements could be added to the exterior of a
vessel, creating texture or even a detailed figural tableau.
Burnishing, using a smooth stone or bone, produced a consistent and glossy surface without
the use of a glaze. Burnishing also served to make vessels watertight. Potters might burnish the entire
exterior or just sections of it, leaving other areas rough and textured. This latter technique is referred
to as pattern burnishing is seen most often in vessels from the Formative Period North Peruvian
Ceramic Complex (see, for example, UCLA FMCH X86.2882).

Firing techniques
A vessel’s final color is the result of both the clay and the firing technique used (McEwan
1997:177; Rice 1987). Different firing techniques produced ceramics ranging in color from white to

3
orange to black. Vessels that appear orange or red in color were made of iron-containing clay and
were fired in an oxygen-rich environment, where oxygen could freely circulate around objects as they
reached peak temperatures, causing the iron in the clay to oxidize. Vessels of a gun-metal grey or
black color, meanwhile, were produced in an oxygen-reduced environment. When these ceramics
reached peak temperatures in the kiln, additional fuel was added and pots were covered with sand or
fine soil. Smoke, trapped by the soil surrounding the pots, forced carbon into the vessel walls
producing a fired pot that was grey or black in color (see Donnan 1992: 20). Vessels of white colored
clay, or kaolinite, resulted from three factors: clay with a high content of calcium, clay fired at high
temperatures, and clay fired in an oxygen-reduced environment (Rohfritsch 2006).

Workshops and kilns

Pottery workshops have been identified at a handful of sites, including the Early Intermediate
Period site of Huacas de Moche, where unfired and fired objects were found, as well as molds for
figurines, trumpets, bottles, jars, and appliques. Fired and unfired matrices were also found along
with fired whistles and rattles (Uceda and Armas 1998: 109). Ceramic workshops have been identified
at another Moche site, that of Cerro Mayal, in the Chicama Valley (Russel et al. 1998), as well as at the
Middle Horizon site of Maymi, in the Pisco Valley (Anders et al. 1998), and at the Wari site of
Conchopata (Pozzi-Escot et al. 1998). Continued excavation will surely turn up additional workshops.
There is also archaeological evidence in the Central Andes for ancient kilns. Some of the most
spectacular kiln finds have come from excavations at Batán Grande, including one that is 2,700 years
old (Shimada et al. 1998: 23). Another 57 kilns were found within a 500-km stretch of the Poma Canal,
an area with clay-rich slack flood deposits (Shimada et al. 1998: 32-33). The three oldest date from 500-
1,200 BC, with the majority dating from 800-700 BC. These Early Horizon kilns from Batán Grande
were fuel efficient updraft kilns (semi-closed) which reached firing temperatures of 800 degrees
Celcius, measured approximately 120 cm x 40 cm, and were used in both oxidized and reducing firing
cycles (Shimada et al. 1998: 23). Kilns often took the form of simple shallow earthen pits, which were
covered with fuel. Fuel included locally available wood such as zapote, algarrobo, or vichayo as well as
animal dung (Shimada et al 1998).

Forms/Types
Fine ware objects made of clay took many forms, including bowls, enclosed containers with
distinctive spouts, solid and hollow figurines, masks, and acoustical instruments such as rattles,
ocarinas, trumpets, drums, panpipes, and whistling vessels. Nasca panpipes, or antaras, deserve
special mention as a standardized musical instrument. Interdisciplinary work by the Peruvian research
team Waylla Kepa has revealed that panpipes were created in complementary sets of 6 (4 large and 2
small) with the same number of tubes, between 10-15, depending upon the set (see Nasca panpipes,
AMNH). Panpipes within the same set shared respective dimensions and decorative patterns and
produced the same sounds, suggesting that tubes were fabricated and tested for precise tonalities
before being fitted into clay sheets and fired (Carlos Mansilla and Milano Trejo, personal
communication 2008). Today, the majority of these sets are broken up in international collections.
Whistling vessels, which double as containers and as musical instruments, are a phenomenon
unique to the Andes. Double chamber examples from Vicús and Moche in Peru (and Calima and
Malagana in Colombia) have resonating chambers and produce up to three distinct reverberating
notes (see Vicús whistling vessel, NMAI 243523). These vessels allow sound to be produced without
obvious human intervention. Water, introduced through the spout, forces air through the whistling
mechanism when the vessel is tilted, producing sound (see Vicús line drawings). Single chambered
resonating whistling vessels are also known. Other cultures, including Paracas, Lambayeque, Chancay,

4
and Chimú produced a simpler type of whistling vessel, where the mechanism was much smaller, and
therefore higher in pitch, and lacked a resonating chamber (see Paracas resist vessel, MMA
1994.35.60).

Regional Styles
Similar to the technologies employed by ancient Central Andean potters, style was also a
cultural choice. These technological and artistic decisions resulted in distinctive regional styles. From
the beginning, scholars have dedicated themselves to the classification and seriation of these styles
but a few factors have made this a complicated undertaking. One of the main challenges has been a
lack of secure context for the great majority of vessels and ceramic objects that survive. Lack of
context means we do not know specifically where many styles originated. And, without secure
context, it is impossible to keep falsified works out of the typologies created. Another challenge is
that wares were widely traded. Even when works are excavated from a given site, there is no
guarantee they were produced there. Further hampering our understanding of regional style is that
cultural designations (i.e. Chavín, Paracas, etc.), which are critical to stylistic attribution, are not
always clearly defined. Systematic studies that develop detailed trait lists for regional styles and sub-
styles are rare (see Donnan 2011 and Burtenshaw-Zumstein 2014). Lastly, in studying ceramics from
the ancient Central Andes, we are considering material created over the span of more than five
thousand years, so we should expect to find a great deal of variation across time and space.
A general observation can be made about ceramic production in the Central Andes across the
millennia: there is a decided move from monochrome, small, and portable wares to polychrome,
large, and unwieldy ones. Formative ceramics are light in weight with thin walls. Two millennia later,
large polychrome urns (2 feet in diameter and 3 feet high) from the Wari culture emerge in the Middle
Horizon and are followed by large, bottom-heavy Inca aríbalos in the Late Horizon. There is a large
degree of regional variation in ceramics, even among wares attributed to the same culture. For
detailed descriptions and images of many known regional styles, see Christopher Donnan's Ceramics
of Ancient Peru (1992).
In today’s Ecuador, Valdivia figurines (c. 3,500 BC, western Ecuador) document the earliest
representation of the human form in the Central Andes. Most commonly, these small figurines (4-20
cm in height) depict elongated standing females with prominent striated hairstyles, created from a
separate piece of clay. Arms, conveyed in relief, clasp below the figure’s breasts. Faces are suggested
by indentions for eyes and mouth. Some Valdivia figurines are covered in red slip and burnished.
Those found archaeologically stem from Real Alto in contexts ranging from burials to house
floor refuse piles to hearths. Interestingly, these figurines follow the form of t heir earlier
stone predecessors (see Valdivia figurine). For more on Formative Ecuador ceramics including
Valdivia bowls, figural Chorrera bottles, vessels, and whistling vessels, Machalila stirrup spout
vessels, and Chorrera-Bahía figural ocarinas, see Cummins (2003), Cummins and Holm (1991), and
Stothert (2003).
Waira-jirca pottery (c. 1,800 BC) from Kotosh, near Huánuco in the upper Huallaga River
drainage, exhibits affinities with early ceramics on the flood plain of the Amazon Basin, near Pucallpa,
Peru, including vessel morphology seen in double spout and bridge bottles; composite silhouette
vessels with rounded bottoms, concave sides, and prominent basal angles; and bowls with a sharp,
relatively high basal angle and convex, sharply incurving sides. Common to both complexes is zoned
hatching overpainted with red pigment after firing. Kotosh Waira-jirca vessel morphology and
technology (namely the appearance of double-spout and bridge bottles with rounded bottoms and
zoned, post-fired painting) also suggests a connection to the early ceramics of Paracas and Nasca on
Peru’s south coast (Lathrap 1965: 797-798).
La Tolita-Tumaco (Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador, 600 BC-400 AD) represents early and

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elaborate renderings of high-ranking people and mythological beings (Masacchi 2008: 492-494).
Figures are hollow and sculptural, with applique and incision used to create adornments. For the
elaborate figural pottery of Jama-Coaque, Bahía, and Guangala, see Masacci (2008).
One of the earliest Central Andean ceramic traditions in today’s Peru has been referred to as the
Formative Period North Peruvian Ceramic Complex (1,800-200 BC) which geographically covers the
coastal and inland area between the Jequetepeque and Chicama Valleys in Peru and includes styles
referred to in the literature as Cupisnique, Tembladera, Chongoyape, and Chavín (Burtenshaw-
Zumstein 2014).1 Many of these vessels have stirrup-shaped handles and spouts. 2 A recent study has
further refined these styles, organizing them by class and type. Class A ceramics are characterized by
slim angular handles with unlipped rims or tall slim spouts. The majority of these have vessel chamber
which are fully sculpted; others have globular-shaped chambers. Some were painted while others
were not and design is conveyed through incision. Class A is broken into four sub-types (1-4) and are
chronologically earlier than Class B (Burtenshaw-Zumstein 2014: 215-234; see Class A vessels). Class A
wares include vessels referred to as Classic Cupisnique, Rojo Grafitado, and Tembladera. Class A find
spots include the Jequetepeque and Chicama valleys. Class B, which is divided into five sub-types (5-
9), includes vessels characterized by rounded handles, short wide spouts with prominent rims,
globular chambers (with a minority sculpted), lack of paint, and a prevalence of surface texturing,
including excision (Burtenshaw-Zumstein 2014: 235-246; see Class B vessels). Class B wares include
vessels referred to as Chongoyape and Chavín. In sum, Class A vessels can be characterized as shiny
and slick while Class B vessels tend to be textured and chunky.
Fine ware ceramics from the Paracas culture (Peru’s southern coast near the Paracas
Peninsula) are associated with the funerary complexes of Paracas Cavernas, Paracas Necropolis, and
Ocucaje, which have been found to reflect a “complex relationship of mutual influence” (Peters 2000:
245). Paracas Cavernas and Paracas Necropolis (200 BC-200 AD) have been interpreted as two
different ethnic groups with distinct boundaries and separate funerary traditions (Peters 1997: 883).
Ceramic assemblages from both traditions were found to vary greatly in terms of paste type,
morphology, and surface treatment (Peters 1997: 444). Ceramic vessels associated with Paracas
Cavernas funerary tradition (lower Ica Valley and Ocucaje basin) have a double spout or a head and
spout, a bridge handle, and elliptical chambers. Bowls, ollas, collared jars, and ceramic drums are also
known (see Paracas drum MMA 1979.206.1097). All emphasize a two-dimensional surface design,
created through incision. After the pot has been fired, brightly colored resin pigments are applied to
the vessel exterior. Colors included red, yellow, brown, black, and white. Coeval with these brightly
painted vessels are resist or negative ware with geometric designs in the form of dots, cross-hatched
lines, and vertical stripes (Proulx 2008:565-567; see Paracas vessel with resist MMA 1994.35.60).
Topará vessels, associated with the Paracas Necropolis tradition and found at the Wari Kayan
Necropolis, are distinguished for their thin clay walls fired to colors of orange, beige, red, pink, brown,
purple, gray, or smudged black (Peters 1997:498). One sub-type of Topará vessels (Wari Kayan Cream
Slipped) have a cream colored slip and chambers shaped like gourds or squash, with vertical radiating
indentations (see Topará vessel MMA 1976.287.30). Another style (Wari Kayan Modeled) is unslipped
and highly burnished (see Topará vessel MMA 63.232.55). Yet another type (Ocucaje Modeled Slip-
Painted) shows innovative modeling, incision, and multiple colors of slip paint. Similar to vessels from

1
Chavín style refers to ceramics associated with the highland site of Chavín de Huantar to the southeast in the
Ancash region of Peru. Julia Burtenshaw-Zumstein has worked to disentangle these regional styles and has
developed a revised typology (2014).
2
The stirrup handle and spout first appears in Ecuador around 2,200 BC at the La Emerenciana site in El Oro
Province (Quilter 2015: 113; Staller 2001). In Peru, the stirrup spout appears almost a millennium later, c 1,100-
800 BC (Quilter 2015: 133).

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Paracas Cavernas, Topará handles form a bridge between two spouts, but the precise form of the
bridge and the spouts varies depending on the sub-type (Peters 1997: 534-539).
Nasca (1-700 AD), geographically associated with the Rio de Nazca drainage and the Ica
Valley on Peru’s south coast, is viewed as a continuation of the Paracas culture with one major
technological innovation evident in their ceramics. With Nasca pottery, we see the introduction of
colored slips which replace the post-fired resin paint used on Paracas ceramics. Impressively, the
Nasca experiment with 12 different colors (Proulx 2008: 572-573). Similar to Paracas, a diagnostic form
is the double spout and bridge handle vessel. In early Nasca, vessel chambers are often globular, while
in later phases they expand into myriad sculptural forms, including male and female figures, whales,
birds, sea fishermen, and stepped motifs. Often, the head of a figure is fully modeled while the body is
depicted two-dimensionally on the vessel chamber (see Nasca drum MMA 1978.412.111). Design areas
are outlined in black and colored in with polychrome slips before firing. Other Nasca forms include tall
vessels, bowls, drums, and panpipes.3
Moche ceramics are found on Peru’s north coast (between Nepeña and Piura, c. 200-750 AD)
and, while highly sculptural, are largely bi-chromatic. A characteristic element is the stirrup handle and
spout, which undergoes slight variations depending upon the region it is from, but is generally thinner
than the Formative Period North Peruvian Ceramic Complex stirrup spout vessels found
chronologically earlier in the northern valleys. An innovation in Moche ceramics is the development of
molds. Molds were used to make the vessel chambers, including those of the famed “portrait”
vessels. Moche ceramics are also the first in the Central Andes (arguably after Chorrera in Ecuador) to
depict a wide range of veristic sculpted forms, including birds (owls, parrots, toucans, ducks),
mammals (foxes, felines, seals, llamas, deer), buildings, and activities including fishing, metallurgy,
and chicha production. Continuous narrative also appears for the first time, most often conveyed two-
dimensionally (fineline) on globular vessels with wide arched handles and long narrow spouts.
Excavation in the past few decades has revealed the co-existence of several distinctive regional styles
within the Moche area. These sub-styles exhibit important morphological and stylistic differences.
Specific styles have been identified and defined for the sites of Dos Cabezas (see Dos Cabezas vessel),
Huacas de Moche, San Jose de Moro (see San Jose de Moro vessel), and the Castillo de Santa
(Donnan 2011).4
Surviving Vicús ceramics stem from looted cemeteries in the Piura Valley in northern Peru.
They are believed to be roughly contemporary with Moche yet lack of secure contexts makes it
difficult to date and seriate this distinctive ceramic tradition. Common are double chamber whistling
vessels, some of which produce up to three distinct notes (see Vicús vessel, NMAI 243523 and x-ray).
Vessels are hand sculpted and figural. Geometric patterning, created using resist technique, decorates
many vessel exteriors.
Recuay wares (found in the sierra of the Department of Ancash, northern Peru, 200-600 AD)
are generally characterized by their use of a white, or kaolinite, clay. Other vessels used a red ware
paste covered with a kaolinite slip. There is also evidence for burnished reduced black wear (Lau 2011:
138-140). Recuay potters’ use of thin pastes and elaborate surface treatments (including limited
polychrome and resist painting) in conjunction with hand modeled sculptural decoration (Lau 2011:
138-147), make for some tour de force pieces (see MNAAHP vessel or use UCLA FMCH X90-477). Forms
include small and large jars, bowls, dippers, cups, and composite forms. There are many regional
styles within the Recuay designation (Lau 2011:127). One of the earlier is known as Huarás style (200

3
For more on Nasca pottery and iconography, see Silverman and Proulx (2002) and Proulx (2006).
4
Moche style pottery was first identified in the Moche Valley. For more on Moche ceramics, see Donnan
(1978).

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BC-200 AD) identified by white painted decoration on a red surface (Lau 2011: 134-136).5
Ceramics of the Wari (occupying mountain and coastal areas from Pampa Grande to Cerro
Baúl, 600-1000 AD) are distinctive for their polychrome earth-tone colored slips including ochre, brick
red, cream, olive, and black. As with Nasca ceramics, forms are outlined in black. While double spout
and bridge vessels are known, other common forms include canteens, keros, bowls, jars, and large
urns with side handles. Little sculptural alteration is made to most vessels. On face neck jars, for
example, facial elements are painted (rather than modeled) on the spout with the exception of noses
and ears which are sculpted. In some cases, low relief is used to convey imagery but generally images
are conveyed two-dimensionally. Spectacular finds were made recently at Castillo de Huarmey on
Peru’s central coast by Milosz Giersz and team (Giersz and Pardo 2014). A delicate canteen-shaped
vessel was found in association with the tomb of Wari noble women (see Castillo de Huarmey vessel).
Atypically, it has white outlines and a fully sculpted figure seated on a totora raft. The figure’s
headdress doubles as the vessel spout.
Related in style to Wari ceramics are those attributed to Tiwanaku (500-1100 AD), whose
geographical area overlaps with Wari at Cerro Baúl and from there extends south to San Pedro de
Atacama in Chile and eastwards toward Lake Titicaca. Early Tiwanaku ceramics (the Kalasasaya style,
c. 200 BC-300 AD) exhibit similarities to the roughly contemporary and geographically proximal
Pucará culture (250 BC-300 AD), including slip-painted exteriors in red, black, yellow, and white.
Imagery is delineated through thick incised lines (Young-Sanchéz 2004: 53; see also Bruhns 1994: 185).
In later phases (Tiwanaku style, 500-1000 AD), grey slips enter in and yellow slip is replaced with
orange. Incised lines are supplanted by outlines conveyed in slip. Vessel forms like keros take on
projecting sculptural elements (see Young-Sanchéz 2004: 53-56).
After the collapse of the Wari empire, the stylistic unity so evident among Wari and Tiwanaku
ceramics gives way to more regional styles (Donnan 1992: 89). These include Lambayeque, or Sicán,
and Chimú on Peru’s north coast and Chancay on Peru’s central coast. Diagnostic elements of
Lambayeque fine ware (from the valleys of La Leche, Lambayeque, Zaña, and Jequetepeque, 900-
1400 AD) include flared rim bases, spherical or elliptical chambers, and long tapering spouts. Handles
can be flat and wide, braided, or sculptural. Many Lambayeque vessels were fired in an oxygen-
reduced environment, resulting in black or gun metal grey wares. Others were slipped with white and
red and fired in oxygen-rich environments (see Lambayeque Totora vessel, MMA 1978.412.4). Others
exhibit fineline designs in organic black pigment. One of the most diagnostic forms is the Huaco Rey
where a sculpted face with pointed ears and upturned tear-shaped eyes sits atop a spherical chamber
(see Lambayeque Huaco Rey, MMA 1970.245.37). Here, the vessel spout is suggestive of a headdress.
The figure is often flanked by sculpted prone figures, felines, or temple-like structures with faces.
Similar to Moche ceramics, Lambayeque vessels are mold made but are distinct in that the majority of
the vessel, including the handle and spout, are produced through the mold.
Chimú (1000-1476 AD, Peru’s north coast) ceramics are also mold-made but are distinguished
by being primarily black wear, the result of being fired in an oxygen-reduced environment (see Chimú
vessel, Brooklyn Museum, 30.1054). Stirrup spout vessels are distinctive in their inclusion of small
sculpted birds or monkeys where the spout meets the handle or where the handle meets the base.
Stamped designs are often found on vessels and handles.
Chancay (Peru’s central coast) pottery is made of terracotta, covered with a white slip, and
decorated with geometric designs using a watery black-brown slip. Ceramic objects include large
ovoid jars and hollow standing male and female figures, flask-shaped jars, shallow bowls, and smaller
figurines. While Chancay potters did employ molds and stamps, they did not burnish their pottery,

5
For more on Recuay ceramics, see Reichert (1977) and Lau (2011). For Recuay ceramic excavated from
Pashash, see Grieder (1978).

8
resulting in wares with a dull and gritty texture (Donnan 1992: 98-99). Some of their most elegant
vessels are double chamber whistling pots, where both chambers have flared bases and a long
graceful tapering spout which connects by way of a bridge handle to a sculpted figure atop one of the
chambers (see UCLA FMCH 86.3801).
Inca ceramics can be broken into two primary categories, wares from Cusco and wares from
the provinces. Cusco pottery (referred to as the Inca state ceramic assemblage) is considered prestige
wear and marks the presence of the empire both inside, but especially outside, its capital of Cusco.
Because provincial Inca ceramics are many and varied, we will focus on the Cusco Inca wares. One of
the most distinctive aspects of these wares is a lack of figural imagery or imagistic forms with the
exception of zoomorphic lugs or handles. There is also a limited number of highly standardized and
distinctive forms including the aríbalo, with a long wide neck, flared rim, a globular chamber with
pointed base, and two carrying handles (see Inca aríbalo, MMA 1978.412.68). Other common forms
include shallow plates, small short-necked jars, and single-footed ollas. A strict set of rules governs
the type and placement of decoration on these wares (Bray 2000: 170-172) which include rhomboids,
concentric squares, exes framed on two sides by a series of parallel lines, rows of triangles, and
geometricized “tree” motifs.
Glazes and vitrified wares enter in to the ceramic record during the Spanish colonial period
and often take pre-Hispanic vessel forms (see MMA X.2.292).

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