Offering Vessel Item Number: 71.23 from the Brooklyn Museum
Label
The Cupisnique people produced carved stone bowls embellished with complex mythological beings. The figure on this vessel represents a spider with two human arms and legs, and eight radiating trophy heads. It holds a knife in one hand and a decapitated head in the other. A snake emerges from a Strombus shell in the genital area.
The trophy heads allude to the figure’s supernatural powers. The spider may be associated with fertility rituals and stories of human sacrifice.
Credit Line
Gift of The Roebling Society and Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Item History
- Made between 901 BCE and 201 BCE
What
- Name
- Offering Vessel
- Identification Number
- 71.23
- Type of Item
- offering and vessel
- Material
- carved steatite and pigment
- Overall
- length 1.875 in, width 6.625 in, height 6.625 in
Who
- Culture
- Cupisnique
Where
- Holding Institution
- Brooklyn Museum
When
- Creation Date
- between 901 BCE and 201 BCE
Other
- Location
- American Identities: A New Look, American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, The Americas’ First Peoples, 4000 B.C.E.–1521 C.E., 5th Floor
- Classification
- Vessel