page_title: Nazca culture
section_title: Pottery
hierarchical_section_title: Nazca culture / Arts and technology / Pottery
caption_attribution_description: English: The coast of Peru is bathed in the Humboldt Current, which sweeps cold water from the Antarctic along the South American coast and northwards to Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. Rich in plankton and other marine animals, the Humboldt Current supports one of the world's most fertile fishing grounds. Early Andean peoples harvested its bounty, with fish and shellfish being a primary source of protein not only for coastal peoples but also those in the highlands. This lobster effigy vessel, with its small bridge-spout handle typical of Nasca ceramics, is a masterful example of the ceramic effigy vessel form.
context_page_description: The Nazca culture was the archaeological culture that flourished from c. 100 BC to 800 AD beside the arid, southern coast of Peru in the river valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage and the Ica Valley. Strongly influenced by the preceding Paracas culture, which was known for extremely complex textiles, the Nazca produced an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs.
  They are known for two extensive construction projects that would have required the coordination of large groups of laborers: the Nazca Lines, immense designs in the desert whose purpose is unknown, and puquios, underground aqueducts for providing water for irrigation and domestic purposes in the arid environment. Several dozen still function today. The Nazca Province in the Ica Region was named for this people.
context_section_description: The Nazca culture is characterized by its beautiful polychrome pottery, painted with at least 15 distinct colors. The shift from post-fire resin painting to pre-fire slip painting marked the end of Paracas-style pottery and the beginning of Nazca-style pottery. 
  The use of pre-fire slip painting meant that artisans experimented to learn which slips produced certain colors. Major pottery shapes include double-spout bottles, bowls, cups, vases, effigy forms, and mythical creatures. Archaeologists have excavated highly valued polychrome pottery among all classes of Nazca society, illustrating that it was not just the elite that had access to them. Commoners were able to obtain these goods through feasting and pilgrimages to Cahuachi. In addition, clays matching the chemical signature of polychrome pottery found all over the Southern Nazca Region have been found near Cahuachi. However, there is no substantial evidence of pottery production at Cahuachi. The site was most likely a redistribution center for ceramics.
  The Nazca pottery sequence has been divided into nine phases. Visual depictions found on pottery from Phase 1 (also called Proto-Nazca) incorporated realistic subject matter such as fruits, plants, people, and animals. Realism increased in importance in the following three phases (2, 3, 4) referred to as the Monumental phases. The pottery from these phases include renditions of their main subject matter against a bold red, black, or white background.
  In the next phase, Nazca 5, considerable experimentation occurred, including the addition of rays, volutes, and other "proliferous" attachments to the supernatural motifs on the vessels. Phase 5 is called Transitional, since it bridges the change in style between the naturalism of Phases 2-4 and the proliferous elements added to the motifs in Phases 6 and 7.
  Nazca 6, and 7 include some of the earlier motifs but also emphasizes militaristic ones, suggesting a shift in social organization. The motifs in these phases include abstract elements as part of the design. Large numbers of rays and tassels are appended to many of the designs, particularly those depicting mythical subjects, producing a visual impression of almost infinitely multiplied elements, an impression which accounts for the use of the term 'proliferous'. Pottery art of Nazca phases 6 and 7 also displays influence from the Moche culture of north coastal Peru. 
  Finally, during Nazca 8 disjointed figures and a geometric iconography was introduced that has been difficult to decipher. Phases 8 and 9 are now believed to date to the Middle Horizon. This period was one of a shift in power from the coast to the highlands with the advent of the Wari culture about 650 CE.
  The Nazca, like all other Pre-Columbian societies in South America including the Inca, had no writing system, in contrast to the contemporary Maya of Mesoamerica. The iconography or symbols on their ceramics served as a means of communication. The motifs depicted on Nazca pottery fall into two major categories: sacred and profane. The Nazca believed in powerful nature spirits who were thought to control most aspects of life. The Nazca visualized these nature spirits in the form of mythical beings, creatures having a combination of human and animal/bird/fish characteristics, and painted them onto their pottery. These Mythical Beings include such varieties as the Anthropomorphic Mythical Being, Horrible Bird, Mythical Killer Whale, Spotted Cat, Feline Man and Rayed Face. 
  Scenes of warfare, decapitation, and the ritual use of human trophy heads by shamans reflect other aspects of Nazca culture.
caption: Lobster effigy vessel, phases III-IV
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