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The Initial Period

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The Initial Period (2200 - 1000 B. C.), Ancient Horizon (1000 - 200 B. C.)

The Initial Period defines the time when the settlement process, the domestication of plants and animals and the beginning of village life developed. The social classes were determined through a defined and differentiated structure. Religion became the cohesive element that aggregated new human groups around sacred places (huacas): the theocracy as a social and political system model came into being.

The Ancient Horizon is characterised by the hegemony of the Chavín cultural model in vast areas of the sierra and the coast. Religion, the feline and serpent cult and the priestly caste, are the basis of this theocratic model. Hand in hand with the expansion of the Chavín culture one finds the development of a type of engraved ceramic, with complex decorations, which expresses the elaborate collection of symbols connected with this ceremonial centre, with the same name, which was the most powerful of this period.


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The Initial Coastal Period


The settlement process began at the coast, which leads to the development of agriculture, the breeding of livestock and the production of ceramics and textiles.



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Ancient Horizon (1000 - 200 B. C.)


The areas of religious and political influence of Chavín and the cultures of the Lake Titicaca basin. The cultural elements of Chavín spread from the central Andes to all the coastal civilizations (Cupisnique, Ancón, Paracas), influencing the iconography and religious beliefs with its unifying impetus.

The objects

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Anthropomorphic bottle

Peru, Northern coast, Vicús-Virú culture, IV-I centuries B.C.

Modelled terracotta, with slip application and painted with a negative film technique. 19x16x20 cm. Collection No. R 32 Bottle with inclined spout and bridge handle. Spherical-lenticular shaped chamber onto which the neck and head of a person with a protruding nose, hollow eyes and nostrils, and slightly opened mouth have been grafted. A whistling apparatus has been inserted into the head. A whistling device has been inserted into the head. There are faint signs of painting with wavy patterns. Often the whistling bottles emulate the sound of the figure that has been represented.

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Cloak fragment

Peru, Central-southern coast, Ancient Horizon - First Intermediate Period, III century B.C.- II century A.C., Paracas culture. Brocade stitch embroidery on a cloth background, overall size 23x40 cm, fringe 5x38 cm. Alvigini collection, T325.

The central design is the picture of a stylized two-headed bird, which is repeated on the inside of the bird and between the two heads. The body is composed of a reversed representation of the same theme. The embroidery is in alpaca green, yellow and deep blue. The two-headed bird motif portrays duality and the supernatural nature of this symbol. The iconography refers to the manifestation of divinity in the form of an animal, which is repeated inside its own body, as a divine element that generates other similar beings.

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Polychromatic bowl

Peru, Central-southern coast, Paracas culture, Recent Phase- IV-I centuries B.C. Modelled and painted terracotta. 7x7x18.5 cm. Collection No. R9.

Bowl with a convex base, painted red, green and yellow after firing. On the inside there is a four part decoration portraying people masked as cats with headpieces. On the outside two serpents contain a band engraved into panels forming red and black diagonal bands on a brown background. The cat and the serpent are a symbolic element of the duality with which the highest divinity manifests itself, also in the Paracas expression. Often the feline deity is the giver of gifts for humanity.

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Zoomorphic bottle

Peru, Central-southern coast, Vicús Culture, Ancient Horizon - First Intermediate Period, V century B.C. - II century A.D. Modelled, engraved and slip-glazed terracotta. 19x16x22 cm. Collection No. R 30.

Bottle with inclined spout and bridge handle. Spherical-lenticular shaped chamber onto which the neck and head of a cat with open jaws have been grafted. The effigy of the cat belongs to the mythical-religious Pan-American world; even the Vicús culture expresses the greatest figure of its pantheon through ceramics. The bottle with a bridge handle is of the type found on the Peruvian coast.


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