Square Bowl with Pampas Cats

500–400 BCE
Overall: 9 x 18 x 17.5 cm (3 9/16 x 7 1/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
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Location: 232 Andean

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Did You Know?

The animal shown on this bowl is the Pampas cat, a small, wild feline.

Description

The Paracas often decorated their ceramics with geometricized representations of the native Pampas cat, a small, reclusive, wild feline that lives on the margins of agricultural fields, where it preys on the rodents and other pests that are a farmer’s bane. Thus, the ancients seem to have linked it to nature’s fertility and, by extension, human prosperity and continuity.
Square Bowl with Pampas Cats

Square Bowl with Pampas Cats

500–400 BCE

Central Andes, South Coast, Paracas

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