Ceramics of the North and South Coasts Essay -- Pottery Mochica Cerami

Ceramics of the North and South CoastsAncient Peruvian Ceramics of the North Coast March 11, 1997 The offshoot pottery pieces found in Peru were make somewhere between 1500 and 1000 b.p. The pieces were found in the central Andean region where a religious cult lived. This cult was called Chavn, after the best know ceremonial center, Chavn de Huntar. The religious center was the home to massive temples that were highly embellished with low relief sculptures of gods, animals, and symbols. The pottery found in the area where vessels that were well do and highly decorated with a similar motif as the temples. But the evolution of Peruvian pottery becomes somewhat confusing and complex after this first civilization of potters.There is a division of people into the North Coast and the South Coast. The split created two styles of pottery, although similar, they never quite merge. I am solely going to talk about the north coast traditions. On the North coast there are five cultures that evo lve into the dominant Mochica style, which was one of the most vigorous and prosperous cultures of Ancient Peru. The next earliest North Coast style, other than the Chavn, started with the Cupisnique people in the Chicama valley. Their ceramics closely resembled those of highland Chavn. They were well made and polished, though somewhat thick walled and heavy. The type of firing used produced a dark semireduced ware that varied from brownish gray to carbon black in color. medal consisted of bold, curvilinear human, feline, and birds of pray heads, eye patterns, pelt markings, and other brief symbols of geometric devices. In the valley to the south of the Cupisnique were the Salinar people who sometime during the fifth century b.p. travel into the north coast of Peru and spread its influence throughout the Cupisnique area. Salinar pottery, though deceptively primitive in ornamentation, was technologically superior to that of the Cupisnique. Vessels were made of well-prepared clays th at were fully oxidized in firing, making them an even orange color. Cream and red slips were used to accentuate sculptural forms and create flat geometric patterns, but not to draw extended motifs. The technical advances of the controlled oxidation firing and slip decoration soon had their effect on contemporary Cupisnique ceramics. Personally, I enjoyed the bottle forms they used wi... ...V plosive consonant they had an extensive commonwealth established and it brought together the peoples of all the north coast valleys. The ceramics were decorated in extending, expressive lines and the modeled vessels showed attention to individual detailed ornamentation. But the creative flow in the ceramic styles was hindered somewhat because of a strict militant rule of the warrior-priest class that was beginning. Yet this was still the most creative time for the Mochica people. The final period in Mochica ceramics, due to a collapse of the culture, brought an abrupt termination of the grea t art tradition that it had expressed so well. The vessels found from this period show a carelessness in painting designs, and less attention to details in the sculptural forms.Many of the figures modeled in to the vessels were warriors dressed for combat. The decline in bore that can be observed, and the nervousness and tension that were expressed in their designs and forms was related to the pressure from the militant expansionist group, the Wari. The struggle between the Mochica and the Wari, was long and fierce, ending in a total collapse of their culture and a loss a 1200 year ceramic tradition.