Accession Number

1986.008.0745a

Description

A portion of a globular, hand-molded, earthenware jar comes from the wreck of the 1622 galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha. A tall neck rises from the rounded body, and it bears a face in the form of eyes, ears, nose, and a mouth set in relief. The exterior of the vessel has a reddish color and is well-smoothed, while the interior is grayer and not as nicely finished. The walls are 1.5 to 2.0 centimeters thick. Many other pieces of this vessel were also recovered, but the low-fired, gritty paste has made cross-mending the fragments difficult. They do show, though, that the intact jar was 64 centimeters tall and 52 centimeters in diameter. The style of the vessel is Native American, not Spanish, and though its specific origins are not known, it has many similarities to effigy jars of both the Chancay and Chimu cultures of coastal Peru. Both groups were subsumed by the Inca empire in the late 15th century, meaning it is possible this jar was well over 100 years old when Atocha sailed.

Exhibition Label

Case/ Object Caption (2023):

Section of an Effigy Vessel, possibly an Ossuary
Ceramic (Central Coast of Peru, possibly Chancay Culture, between 1000-1470)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0745a

The upper portion of this jar shows a face. The face would have been painted to give a suggestion of life and personality, and painted clothes would have decorated the lower section.

Effigy vessels could store food and drink, but were sometimes used as ossuaries, to hold the bones of an important ancestor. Indigenous people often asked powerful forebears to intercede with the gods on behalf of the living. The Spanish raided mortuaries and destroyed ossuaries in order to weaken ancestor reverence and require Indigenous people to pray only to Christian saints.