Handle Item Number: Sf526 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
A round handle surmounted by a sculpture of two anthropomorphized birds with up-thrust beaks and wings spread. The long thick legs and stance are more human-like than avian.
Narrative
Vicus/Moche style, contemporary with Moche 1 and 2; 0-200 C.E. The flattening and slight flaring of the handle above the break suggests this was probaly a chisel, like the one pictured in Jones. Like the knives, chisels sometimes have detailed sculptures on the handles. Such chisels have been found in Moche graves (Huaca de la Luna) and others are given a Vicus provenience.
Iconographic Meaning
Birds and anthropomorphized birds with long beaks appear as subsidiary figures on Moche ceramics depicting the burial theme (Donnan). The birds are often pecking at sacrificed prisoners who have ropes around their necks.
Item History
What
- Name
- Handle
- Identification Number
- Sf526
- Type of Item
- handle
- Material
- copper metal
- Manufacturing Technique
- cast
- Overall
- height 10.0 cm, width 2.2 cm, depth 1.0 cm
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Peru
When
- Creation Date
- during 200
- Collection Date
- between 1949 and 1966
- Ownership Date
- before May 4, 1981
- Acquisition Date
- on May 4, 1981
Other
- Item Classes
- metalwork
- Condition
- poor
- Accession Number
- 0711/0029