PRE-COLUMBIAN UPSIDE DOWN FACE (SACRIFICIAL?) VESSEL

UPSIDE-DOWN FACE ("SACRIFICIAL VICTIM-?")
PRE-COLUMBIAN FLARED RIM VESSEL

probably CHIMU or MOCHICA, circa 1200-1500,

Face on the flared rim, opposite handle, arms folded above private parts; round base.
It has been pointed out that tiny flecks of gold are incorporated into the clay.

(The Mochica / Moche , early Chimu people, expanded circa 1300-1400 AD/CE to the Jequetepeque Valley in the north, before conquest by the Inca in 1470 AD/CE)

"...no ritual was of greater significance to the Moche than human sacrifice......known for the realistic detail in their pottery and ceramics -- graphic images of war and sex and human sacrifice ...
Ref : U Toronto ( http:/news.artsci.utoronto.ca/life-death-and-meaning-in-the-jequetepeque-valley-of-northern-peru)

Height : 6-1/4" x 5" x 5"

Provenance : inherited from a professor in the area around Peru's Jequetapeque (or "Oquetapeque") valley,
according to the client, his stepson, who recalls time spent there in 1978 and 1963
# j mlls 17002 .......................................................................SOLD