Description:
A large vessel depicting a male prisoner. He is sitting naked, his genitalia exposed, with his wrists tied behind his back, and a rope twisted around his neck. His facial features are particularly well sculpted. He has large ears with holes in his earlobes, now empty but originally no doubt adorned by the ornaments he once wore. There is a funnel-shaped spout on top of his head. Pottery with a fleshly brown surface and white highlights.
In Moche art, prisoners are often shown naked. They were not only stripped of their clothes, but also of power attributes such as weapons, headdresses, and earspools, in sign of defeat. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and a rope was placed around their necks. A bleak future awaited them. Their fate was described in detail by Christopher Donnan (1997, p. 52-53): “Once captured, some or all of the opponent’s clothing was removed, a rope was placed around his neck, and his hands were sometimes tied behind his back. The victor then held the rope tied to the prisoner’s neck and marched him off the field of battle (…) Following arraignment, there was a ceremony in which the prisoners were sacrificed. Their throats were cut, and their blood was consumed in tall goblets”. See however also Mottl 2015, p. 99, who mentions sacrifice to the gods, mutilation, or adoption by the victor’s group, after Alan R. Sawyer, Ancient Peruvian Ceramics from the Kehl and Nena Markley Collection (Pennsylvania State University, 1975, p. 14).
The capture and procession of prisoners and their killing was depicted on Moche vases (see for example Donnan 1997, figs. 2-4 and 6; Sutter and Cortez 2005, figs. 2, 5) as well as on monuments (see Quilter 2008, p. 216, fig. 12.1 for a life-size frieze of marching prisoner, led by a warrior, at Huaca Cao Viejo).
A famous and much discussed scene can be found on a stirrup spout vessel in the Museum Fünf Kontinente (Five Continents Museum), formerly known as the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, München, Germany. This shows the presentation of a goblet of blood in the upper register, while the lower register contains scenes of bound, naked prisoners having their throats cut to procure the ritual blood. Another vessel, in the American Museum of Natural History, shows a procession of naked prisoners within a ceremonial precinct defined by large pyramids with temple structures at their summits. They are carrying leaders on litters, while a bound prisoner is having his throat slit by an attendant, and dead and decapitated prisoners are depicted in the bottom register.
Views are still polarized concerning the question whether warfare was purely ritual, to supply prisoners for sacrifice, or conducted for other reasons, the result of which was the sacrifice of prisoners (Verano 2001, p. 113–114; Quilter 2002, p. 167; Mottl, p. 99).
Literature:
Christopher B. Donnan, “Deer Hunting and Combat. Parallel Activities in the Moche World” in Kathleen Berrin (ed.), The Spirit of Ancient Peru. Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera (New York and London, Thames and Hudson, 1997), p. 51-59;
Kirsten Marie Mottl, Re-examined and Re-defined: an Exploration and Comparative Analysis of Moche Ceramic Vessels in the Milwaukee Public Museum Collections (Theses and Dissertations, Paper 822) (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 2015);
Jeffrey Quilter, “Art and Moche Martial Arts”, in Steve Bourget and Kimberly L. Jones, The Art and Archaeology of the Moche. An Ancient Andean Society of the Peruvian North Coast (Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, 2008), p. 215-228;
Jeffrey Quilter, “Moche Politics, Religion, and Warfare”, Journal of World Prehistory, volume 16, no. 2 (June 2002), p. 145-195;
Richard C. Sutter - Rosa J. Cortez, “The Nature of Moche Human Sacrifice. A Bio-Archaeological Perspective”, Current Anthropology, volume 46, no. 4 (August–October 2005), p. 521-549;
John W. Verano, “Many Faces of Death: Warfare, Human Sacrifice, and Mortuary Practices of the Elite in Late Pre-Hispanic Northern Peru”, in Christopher Knüsel - Martin J. Smith (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict (London and New York, Routledge Press, 2013) p. 355-370;
John W. Verano, “War and Death in the Moche World: Osteological Evidence and Visual Discourse” in Joanne Pillsbury (ed.), Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru (Studies in the History of Art, volume 63: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium papers, volume 40) (Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2001), p. 111 – 125;
John W. Verano, “Warfare and Captive Sacrifice in the Moche Culture: The Battle Continues”, in Andrew K. Scherer - John W. Verano (eds.), Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes (Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia and Colloquia, 2014), p. 283-310.
Dating:
Moche IV, ca. 450-600 C.E.
Size:
Height 36 cm.
Provenance:
Dutch private collection, acquired from Arte Primitivo, New York, circa 2002; before that private New York collection; before that private Memphis, Tennessee collection, acquired in the 1960s.
Condition:
A stable hairline, running horizontally along the proper right hip, otherwise intact; in excellent condition.
Price:
€ 4,800
Stock number:
P1093