Double-chambered bottle with effigy figures

This figure of a female holding up a small child may be part of a family group with MMA 66.30.4. Vicús ceramics are characterized by their orange ware enhanced with resist painting in black and post-fire painting in white. To achieve the resist negative design, the composition was outlined with a watery paint that acted as a resist after the vessel was initially burnished and fired. Then, the ceramic was fired again at a low temperature, causing the smoke to fill the uncovered surfaces. Finally, the resist was removed, revealing the brighter layer below.

This type of double chambered vessel has a whistle in the larger figure’s head. When liquid moves from one chamber to the other through the tube connecting the two chambers in forces air through the whistle to create a bird-like twittering sound. This can also be achieved by blowing into the spout.

The Vicús culture was contemporary with the larger Moche civilization (farther south on Peru’s coast) and was eventually incorporated into their orbit. The double-chambered shape of the Vicús bottles likely originated farther north, in what is now Ecuador.

References and Further Reading

Ikehara, Hugo. "La colección vicús en el Museo Central." Revista Moneda 193 (2023), pp. 56-63.

Kaulicke, Peter. “The Vicús-Mochica Relationship.” In Andean Archaeology III, edited by William H. Isbell and Helene H. Silverman, pp. 85-111. Boston: Springer, 2006.

Makowski, Krzysztof, Christopher B. Donnan, Ivan Amaro Bullon, Luis Jaime Castillo, Magdalena Diez Canseco, Otto Elespuro Revoredo, and Juan A. Murro Mena. Vicús. Colección arte y tesoros del Perú. Lima: Banco de Crédito, Perú, 1994.