Bird-Shaped Container
500–900
- Medium
- wood
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 8.4 cm (3 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Peru, Wari style (500-900)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Peruvian Indians today regard coca leaf as a sacred substance that creates communion with deities. The leaves are chewed with powdered lime that in antiquity was stored in containers and scooped with spatulas like those seen here. Aside from its ritual meaning, coca has practical benefits: it is vitamin-rich and, like coffee, induces clear-headedness. The lizard spatula is Nasca; the other two are Wari.
