Chavin Stone Carved Double Beaker, circa 700-400 BC

Small portable objects can be powerful tools for disseminating ideology, socio-religious beliefs and important historical narratives. In the Chavin era, steatite cups were prized ritual objects masterfully designed to relay some of the most important iconographic imagery. These portable vessels were an important implement of Chavin rituals that could be traded or easily transported. 

The complex and dense imagery completely envelopes the sides and bottom of this small double-vessel, imbuing a functional object with mystical authoritative information. Each chamber is deeply carved continuously on the walls and on the base, with a sinuous and undulating field of two mythical creatures of serpent and feline form. The robust and compact profile heads are turned sharply upward, with snub noses and lunate eyes and pupils typical of felines, and the open mouths appear to have forked tongues curling upward; the spines are decorated with repeat geometric designs that continue onto the base of the cups. One chamber is dominated by tripartite plumes between the heads, the other chamber (now with a plain replacement to fill the missing portion of the wall), has a distinct triple plume issuing from the body, and human hands appear to grasp implements. The sprouting elements may relate to psychotropic substances which could have been prepared within the cups.

The Chavin culture was a complex cultural network dominating the Early Horizon (9th-3 c. BC), extending over the North/Central Peruvian Highlands and coastal region. The monumental site of Chavin de Huantar was the socio-religious epicenter, home of the famous Lanzon monolith, an engraved stone stele over 4 meters tall. Recent research at the site revealed the sophisticated engineering, technical organization, and skill whereby light and sound were manipulated in the construction of the underground tunnels and labyrinths to enhance the experience of entering a sacred space. 

For examples of carved stone cups in the collection of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., see: http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/22990; http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/22989; and http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/22517 See also Alan C. Lapiner, Pre-Columbian Art of South America, New York, 1976, p. 66, fig. 123.

Small stone cups have been noted in contexts with carved bone spatula implements which share some elements of the iconography; see the Haldas and Pallka bone spatulas in Henning Bishof, "Context and Content in Early Chavin Art", in William J. Conklin and Jeffrey Quilter, eds., Chavin: Art, Architecture and Culture, Los Angeles, 2008, p. 124, fig. 4.11, particularly for the tripartite sprouting element.