Musical instrument, seven note reed panpipe. Each pipe made of reeds of two different diameters, with string bound joints. Two small reeds are absent. Incomplete.

Terracotta panpipes with eight note cylinders of varying lengths arranged in order with the shortest and longest on opposite sides. There is a horizontal flat band of clay across the top of the pipes and another approximately 10.5 cm below. The walls of the pipes are thin, and have been broken and repaired. There are several missing pieces.

Gift of Mary Ann Krotzer

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Hundreds of panpipes similar to this one have been found in Nasca burial sites along pilgrimage routes, suggesting that the instruments served an important ceremonial function in ancient times. Scholars believe that panpipes were played by pilgrims during processions to the giant geoglyphs (designs scratched on the ground) in the Nasca desert and at ritual feasts that took place at the nearby site of Cahuachi. These ceremonies were held to ensure water for the agricultural season.


Cientos de zampoñas parecidas a ésta han sido encontradas en enterratorios Nasca a lo largo de rutas de peregrinaje, sugiriendo que este instrumento servía una función ceremonial importante en tiempos antiguos. Académicos creen que las zampoñas eran tocadas por peregrinos durante procesiones a los geoglifos gigantes (diseños marcados en la tierra) en el desierto de Nasca y en festines rituales que se realizaban en el sitio cercano de Cahuachi. Estas ceremonias se realizaban para asegurar el agua para la estación agrícola.

Brooklyn Museum Collection

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Panpipes made from two rows of hollow bamboo segments of uniformly increasing length lashed together with thread and thin strips of bamboo.

Panpipes made from a row of hollow bamboo segments of graduated lengths lashed together with woolen, coloured thread and a bamboo strip; the smallest section is made from a cylindrical section of thick, commercial paper with green printing on it.

Mouth organ consisting of 17 cane pipes, each with a free reed of thinner wood inserted around the circumference of flat side of black lacquered wooden container shaped like an elongated hemisphere, with a neck to use as a blowpipe. 13 pipes have 0.25cm. round hole and 2cm. split in cane; 4 pipes have neither hole nor split. Both neck and container have bone decoration, forming mouthpiece of neck and at bottom of bowl. Canes held in place by rattan strap.