Feline-headed Serpent Tripod Bowlca. 600-900 AD[]Redware ceramicRedware Wari tripod bowl with feline-headed serpent motif in buff and brown over red slip. Small lug handles at sides. Legs of vessel are hollow; one is broken off. Vessel is broken and has been repaired, leaving hole in bottom of bowl. _________ Zoomorphic (animal) motifs were commonly employed on a wide range of Pre-Columbian artifacts, including pottery, textiles, and metalwork. Pre-Colombian works of art depict both wild and domesticated animals, creatures commonly encountered in everyday life, and creatures found rarely--or not at all--in the natural world. Aspects of many different animals can be found in Pre-Colombian art, often mixed with human attributes in what may appear to us to be startling and fantastic combinations. Many works of art feature animals such as the great cats (jaguars or pumas), which possessed great spiritual power and were key elements of Pre-Colombian religious traditions. In Central America and in northern South America, the animal triad of harpy eagle, jaguar, and cayman (similar to an alligator or crocodile) was cosmologically important. Birds are creatures of the air, while caymans are creatures of the water; jaguars can move between the trees, water, and ground and thus serve to mediate the supernatural forces found on land, air and water. Birds and felines are among the most common shamanic helper spirits. Feline (or cat) imagery was commonly employed on a wide range of Pre-Columbian artifacts, including pottery, textiles, metalwork, and even in site planning (the archaeological ruins on the slopes of Mount Sangay, Ecuador, consist of tolas mounds arranged in the shape of a jaguar, and the Inca capital city of Cuzco, Peru, was laid out in the form of a puma). Recognizable by a typically snarling face with prominent fangs, cat-like elements are often blended with human characteristics as well as features from other animals such as snakes and birds to form a variety of fantasy creatures, including "monsters" and "dragons". Jaguars are the largest and strongest spotted cats in the Americas, and have had a profound influence on prehistoric art. Because jaguars are equally at home in trees and on land, they are seen as mediators between ground-dwelling humans and the divine; deities communicate to the world of mortal men through the jaguar. Both studies of modern people from lowland South America and writings from shortly after the Spanish Conquest emphasize the close association of shamans with jaguar spirits and the recurrent themes of jaguars as procreators, sexual unions with jaguars, jaguar-men and jaguar clans. Jaguars are usually depicted with curly tails in Pre-Columbian art. For more information, please see The Cult of the Feline (1972), edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, Dumbarton Oaks: Washington, DC. Wari (AD 600-1000) The Middle Horizon saw the advent of two major cultural foci in the south-central Andes: Wari (Huari) in Peru and Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) in Bolivia. Like the Moche, the Wari were a warrior society, bent on conquest. From the interior highland site of Huari in Ayacucho, the influence of the Wari Empire spread over much of Peru from the La Leche Valley in the north to the Majes Valley in the south. Wari ceramics were themselves strongly influenced by the earlier brighly-painted Nasca ceramics found along neighboring regions of the coast. As in Nasca ceramics, Wari ceramic motifs are often outlined with thin black lines. The Tiwanaku influence on Wari art consisted of iconography shared with the great site on the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, especially the Gateway God or Staff God figure. This figure is usually shown with rays radiating from his head and feline tear lines falling from his eyes. The figure holds a stylized spear thrower in his right hand and stylized spears in his left. Face-neck jars and double-spout-and-bridge vessel shapes are common. Wari textile designs share many of the decorative elements common to the ceramics of this period; tunic designs were standardized and some officials or bureaucrats appear to have worn state uniforms or rank insignia indicative of their specialized role in society. Wari administrative centers were rigidly organized with standardized building templates executed with great precision and regimentation. Suggestions for Further Reading about Wari: Cook, Anita G. (1992): "The stone ancestors: idioms of imperial attire and rank among Huari figurines," in Latin American Antiquity 3(4):341-364. Isbell, William H. and Gordon F. McEwan,eds. (1991): Huari Administrative Structure: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: Washington, D.C. Knobloch, Patricia J. (2000): "Wari ritual power at Conchopata: an interpretation of Anadenanthera colubrina iconography," in Latin American Antiquity 11(4): 387-402. com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.Classification@61https://emuseum.cornell.edu/objects/7622/rdf