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Cerro Sechin: Stone Sculpture

The elaborate and grim stone frieze at Cerro Sechin has fascinated scholars and laypeople alike since its discovery in 1937. Made from locally obtained blocks of granite, the stone monoliths depict scenes of sacrifice and bodily mutilation. Images of important personages, each of whom carries a club or staff and wears a loincloth and hat, are surrounded by engraved depictions of severed body parts and naked, maimed human beings. The majority of important personages are carved on larger stones, approximately 3 x 1 meters, while the dismembered human remains are carved into much smaller pieces of stone ranging from 0.5 to 1.2 meters wide and 0.5 to 0.8 meters long. Some scholars suggest that the monoliths were intended to commemorate an important battle or conquest, while others propose that the engravings were associated with religious and mythical themes.

Notions of violence and combat were present, perhaps even celebrated, at Cerro Sechin.

Related

Cited Works of Art or Images (2)

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• 

Timelines (1)

• South America, 2000–1000 b.c.

Primary Thematic Essays (1)

• Cerro Sechin

Other Thematic Essays (20)

• Aztec Stone Sculpture
• Fell's Cave (9000–8000 B.C.)
• La Venta
• La Venta: Sacred Architecture
• La Venta: Stone Sculpture
• Monte Alban
• Monte Alban: Sacred Architecture
• Monte Alban: Stone Sculpture
• Prehistoric Stone Sculpture from New Guinea
• Real Alto
• Tenochtitlan
• Tenochtitlan: Templo Mayor
• Teotihuacan
• Teotihuacan: Ciudadela
• Teotihuacan: Mural Painting
• Teotihuacan: Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon
• Tikal
• Tikal: Sacred Architecture
• Tikal: Stone Sculpture
• Valdivia Figurines

Maps (1)

• World, 2000-1000 B.C.

Index Terms (9)

Art Movement/Style

• Stone Age of Prehistoric Art

Geography/Place

• Andes

Material and Technique

• Sculpture in the Round from South America
• Relief Sculpture from South America
• Granite

Object

• Secular Architecture

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology from South America
• Military
• Indigenous Sculpture in the Round

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Of the hundreds of monoliths found at Cerro Sechin, 244 contain or represent faces. The faces belong to either important persons, mutilated beings, or severed heads. While the facial expressions of the important personages are fierce and determined, those of the mutilated individuals and severed heads are contorted in pain. Their eyes, often indicated by a solitary curved line or as bulging circles, may indicate death, struggle, or disfigurement. The mouth—the most accentuated aspect of the face—is often pulled back in a distorted grimace, and streams of blood flow from head wounds.



In other instances, whole figures have been splayed down the center and their inner intestines graphically depicted. While evidence for large-scale warfare during the second millennium B.C. is scant for this region of Peru, it seems clear that notions of violence and combat were present, perhaps even celebrated, at Cerro Sechin.



Nicole Slovak Department of Anthropological Studies, Stanford University

Citation Slovak, Nicole. "Cerro Sechin: Stone Sculpture". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cerr_2/hd_cerr_2.htm (October 2003) Further Reading Maldonado, Elena Arqueología de Cerro Sechín, vol. 1, Arquitectura. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fundación Volkswagenwerk-Alemania, 1992. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)