Iconographic, Technological, and Contextual Analysis of Wari Pyro-Engraved Gourds from Castillo de Huarmey, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The technological, stylistic, and iconographical aspects of decorated gourds are yet insufficiently addressed by researchers of precolumbian Andean art. This paper investigates Wari pyro-engraved gourd vessels that have been discovered during the excavation process at Castillo de Huarmey since 2013. The archaeological site is located in a Peruvian desert on the Pacific coast and contains a complex of richly equipped royal tombs of precolumbian Wari noblewomen. Among hundreds of artifacts made of clay, wood, bone, shell, stone, and metals, there were also gourd vessels decorated with geometric (lines, waves, spirals, step-fret) as well as figurative motifs (felines, birds, spiders, fish, as well as hybrid anthropomorphic and zoomorphic fantastic figures) that conceal a great research potential. Technological, iconographic, and iconological analysis of motifs suggest that Wari intentionally made use of imperial and local features in reference to other Andean traditions. The latest results of research advance the idea that the entire symbolic system of Wari gourd decoration could be an expression of imperial ideology based on the belief in the ability to influence natural phenomena through some kind of mimicry. This was probably the driving force behind Wari elite actions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36167.0