Chavin Miniature Anthracite Jaguar Mortar

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Chavin. A fantastic object, charming and delightful, a mortar for grinding hallucinogenic drugs used in ritual in the form of a standing jaguar, all smoothly carved from a lustrous, black anthracite stone. The facial features of the ancient feline are exaggerated, with pointed ears, huge, bulging eyes, a square snout, a rounded nose, and a sizeable, open mouth. He stands upon 4 paws with delineated toes displaying the shallow basin of the mortar on his broad back, as a slender tail droops from his posterior. Size: 3.5" L x 1.9" W x 2.6" H (8.9 cm x 4.8 cm x 6.6 cm) The Chavin lived in the northern Highland Andes, and their capital, Chavin de Huantar, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the center of Chavin de Huantar is a massive, flat-topped pyramid, surrounded by lower platforms. Between 1200 and 500 BCE the pyramid space was used for religious ceremonies. The Old Temple, constructed very early in the history of the site, consists of a series of passageways built around a circular courtyard; within were carved stone monuments showing jaguars, serpents, and other figures with transformative and/or anthropomorphic figures. At the very center is a towering stone stela depicting an anthropomorphic figure with a jaguar head, a human body, and eyebrows and hair made of snakes. This is Lanzon, the chief deity of Chavin. Researchers believe that worshippers ingested hallucinogenic drugs, prepared using mortars like this one, and then were led in the dark through the labyrinthine passageways before entering the central courtyard and coming abruptly face-to-face with the snarling features of the god. Research shows that Chavin people ingested hallucinogenic drugs made from cactus in ritualistic ceremonies and such containers may have symbolically held the appropriate amount to ingest. The jaguar was a supernatural being throughout pre-Columbian cultures, and an important cult deity in Chavin religion, famously depicted in the Lanzon stela as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic mix of snake, human, and jaguar. Item # 205581

Estimate:$900

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