Central Coast of Peru
Chancay culture

Pottery, pigment
ca. 1000 to 1450 CE
Height: 5.8 in; Width: 4.8 in; Depth 1.3 in; Height w/custom stand: 7.4 in 

Idiophones – Indirectly Struck – Rattles

A Pre-Columbian, Central Coast Peru, Chancay rattle, ca. 1000-1450 CE.  This hand-made Bi-Chrome pottery rattle features a person lying on a pallet with arms outstretched. The pallet figure is a common image throughout the pre-Columbian world, known for example, from the West Mexican shaft tomb cultural tradition.  It calls to mind someone who was probably dead, being carried to a burial site or ceremony.  Although relatively little is known about the Chancay culture, their neighbors, the Inca, had a strong tradition of mummification and veneration of the mummified dead, including bringing the mummies of emperors to special events. The body on the pallet might represent the moving of a revered ancestor.

The Chancay people, a pre-Hispanic archeological civilization, developed between the valleys of Fortaleza, Pativilca, Supe, Huaura, Chancay, Chillón, Rimac and Lurín, on the central coast of Peru. Their culture emerged after the fall of the Wari civilization. Parts of the southern Chancay area were conquered by the Chimú in the early 1400s, and by about 1450 CE the Incas were occupying both areas.