Description:

Pre-Columbian, Chile, Proto-Nazca culture, ca. 500 BCE to 1 BCE. A dark wood snuff tray or tablet with an abstract sea lion projecting from one end, overlooking the bowl as if supervising the proceedings. The sea lion has inlaid, white shell discs forming its eyes. The tablet is in the form of a shallow, rectangular bowl with slightly raised edges. Size: 12" L x 5" W (30.5 cm x 12.7 cm)

This item represents the drug paraphernalia employed by many people in the Atacama Desert region of ancient Chile. Wooden snuff trays like this one are found in burials alongside tubes for inhaling, spatulas, mortars and pestles, and other items for the ingestion of snuff. The mixture, prepared from resin, leaves, and ground seeds, was used in part to induce a hallucinogenic state for shamanic ritual.

Sea lions are a fascinating motif in ancient Peru. The people of this culture and others along in area - notably the later Moche - would have seen sea lions along the coast. They seem to have associated the animals in some way with human sacrifices, and we know from Moche art that they were ritually hunted (not just as a resource). Excavations of the site of Huaca de la Luna uncovered a tomb with a clay effigy of a sea lion and a sea lion canine tooth resting on the body's sternum. Some researchers have suggested that sea lions were associated symbolically with humans because of the animals' ability to live both on land and in the sea, placing them in a liminal space in the minds of people whose cosmology was ordered around the natural world. Whatever its meaning, this whimsical representation of the animal is a delight to behold.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Westermann collection, Germany

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#123558

  • Condition: Dark patina from touch/wear. Slight warping to shape as shown in photos.

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May 25, 2017 8:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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