People of the Chancay culture lived along the river valleys and coast of central Peru from about the 11th to 15th centuries. They are well known for their distinctive white-slipped ceramics in human and other animal forms. Chancay pottery is unusually primitive in appearance compared to the ceramic wares of contemporary cultures in the region, and could indicate a need for many hastily created ceramic items.

This large vessel is in the form of a person holding a small cup, perhaps to hold chicha. Chicha, a fermented beverage usually made from corn, was used for ritual purposes during the later Inca Empire and probably by earlier cultures as well. If this vessel held chicha, it probably served a ritual function during a feast.

I chose this object because of its engaging, and even comical, appearance. It is in the form of a person, yet the proportions are all wrong – the body is huge and the arms and legs are tiny. This is a common form of Chancay pottery. The Museum cares for four of these kinds of pots and many are known of in collections worldwide. They all are remarkably similar with only slight variations in size and decoration.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology