Finial

Item number Sf549 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

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Data
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Description

A metal fragment with the head of a long-muzzled animal with irregular antlers. The head and rounded chest project from a vertical bar. The circular eyes are concave. The metal is dark brown but almost entirely covered in green deposits.

History Of Use

This may be a part of a cock for a spear thrower. Other examples from Vicus have a variety of cast decorations (Disselhoff) including birds, felines and humans. The broken base makes it difficult to compare the form to complete examples.

Narrative

Vicus Style, Early Intermediate Period, contemporaneous with Moche 1 and 2, 0-200 C.E.

Iconographic Meaning

Antlered animal is a deer. In Moche and Vicus art, deer are frequently depicted in scenes of ritual hunts along with elaborately dressed hunters (Donnan). Occasionally, deer appear as anthropomorphized warriors or prisoners and sometimes they occur in scenes with psychotropic seed pods (Donnan).