Sacrificing SAIS: Ceramic Offerings from Huari, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ceramic offerings are an essential practice utilized by the Wari empire of the Central Andes throughout the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000). While well-known for the Conchopata oversize ceramic offering tradition where large, oversized urns and faceneck jars were ritually smashed in civic-ceremonial events and left in situ or interred, this practice has yet to be documented at the capital site of Huari. Instead, a different pattern of intentional breakage in ceramics has been observed at the Patipampa sector of Huari that focused on the Southern Andean Iconographic Series (SAIS) assemblage. While the oversized vessels themselves are infrequent, patterns observed in those deliberate destructive practices have been applied to other vessel forms at Patipampa, most notably with blows directed to the faces of effigy vessels. For other instances or forms, kill holes were utilized over direct blows to the principal figures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37494.0