Feline-Head Bottle The Americas

(Peru, Jequitipeque Valle, 15th-5th century B.C.E.) 

This is the Feline-Headed Bottle, it's a ceramic vase that could've been used for rituals or ceremonies. When this bottle was discovered, they found it in Peru and thought it belonged to the Inka, who lived in Peru. Except that's not the case, this vase belonged to a tribe or a subgroup called Cupisnique due to its design. Thinking this vase originated from a culture called Chavin, as they both have similar aspects to their art. 

The image below shows one of the Chavin Stirrup Vessels; if you look at both you can see they have many teeth in the same orientation. With both having one eye in the center looking up. For this reason, archeologists thought the Feline-Headed Bottle was created after this Chavin vessel.  But that's not the case, instead, those roles are switched. Even though it's so old it would make sense there is lots of information on this piece, sadly we don't know much. Only certain facts that agree with our findings based on surrounding cultures, other dig sights, and design aspects.




(Peru, 900-200 B.C.E.)

Even though these two bottles look similar, there are distinct differences between the two. Archeologists say the Feline-Headed Bottle was used for rituals or ceremonies based on how the vase was colored. Instead of painting the bottle before it was fired, the paint was placed on afterward, because of that, the paint surface is very fragile. But based on the design of the bottle there are many hidden details within it. There are several faces, one on the far right, one on the left, and another in the center if you view it from its side. With the many teeth and faces, it could have also been a spiritual item. None the less this is something very imaginative and exciting. As an artist, I want to try and replicate this in my own artwork. 

 

Dr. Sarahh Sher and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Feline-Head Bottle," in Smarthistory, September 25, 2016, accessed November 11, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/feline-bottle/.



Comments

  1. Ashley MNovember 14, 2020 at 1:42 PM

    This Cupisnique bottle was my favorite piece of pottery from this section. The style of the cat reminds me of those Japanese masks with the large fangs and bulging eyes. It's really clever how they have given the vessel different reads depending on which direction it's turned. This is somehow what makes this piece so appealing to me. The way the tail doubles as a tongue is so clever. The jaguar is an important animal to this region of the world, but to me this looks more like a dragon. There is a theory that the large head with all the teeth may be a caiman so maybe I'm not too far off.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 15, 2020 at 8:52 PM

    Hey David,

    Your post on the Feline-Headed Bottle by the Cupisnique tribe was incredible! Your description between the two vases well-written and allowed the reader to imagine how they looked before seeing both of the vase photographs. I am curious what material was used to make the vase from the Cupisnique tribe? Do you know the date for when these were approximately made or when they were discovered?
    -Autumn Fink

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