User:Obergj/Nazca culture

Pottery
The Nazca culture is characterized by its polychrome pottery, painted with at least 12 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. (EDIT) The amount of pottery produced by the Nazca people is greater when compared to the preceding Paracas culture. A potential reason for this is due to the relatively lesser amount of time required to produce pottery when compared to textiles, which the Paracas favored. EDIT OVER

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. (EDIT) This distribution of pottery was useful in spreading the ruling class's culture. EDIT OVER 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. (EDIT) An indicator of the phase is the pottery having motifs cut into the pottery, much like the preceding Paracas-style pottery, but using slip painting instead of resin painting. EDIT OVER 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 5 also sees militaristic motifs becoming more common, potentially due to a drought causing conflict. 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.

EDIT Scenes of warfare, decapitation, and the ritual use of human trophy heads by shamans were common motifs in Nazca pottery.

Trophy heads
The debate over the purpose of trophy heads continues to this day, as to whether they were trophies of war or objects of ritual. The Nazca used decapitated heads, known as trophy heads, in various religious rituals and appear as a motif in ceramic iconography. Visual depictions of decapitations often associate the decapitators with weapons and military-like dress, but such garments could have been worn in purely ceremonial circumstances as well.

The term 'trophy head' was coined by archaeologist Max Uhle, who considered the depiction of severed heads in ancient Peruvian art to correspond to trophies of warfare. Researchers noted that all the heads had one modification in common- a hole in the forehead through which a rope could be affixed, presumably so that the severed head can be displayed or carried. EDIT Other common modifications were the base of the skull being broken and thorns closing the mouth. Over 100 heads that have been discovered were mummified which unique to the Nazca and the preceding Paracas Culture.

Many burials of Nazca individuals are what is known as 'partial burials'. Partial burials typically include bundles of limbs, caches of severed heads, or bodies that are missing several parts. Several burials have been discovered in which the head of the skeleton is missing and is replaced with what is most commonly referred to as a 'head jar'. The head jar is a ceramic vessel with a human head painted on it, along with trees and plants sprouting from the head, which is known as the Sprouting Head motif. The actual appearance of the head jars can vary majorly with some having the appearance of trophy heads and others potentially be a portrait of the person buried there.

(My edits) Early Nazca period ceramics indicate that the initial purpose of trophy heads may have been related to agriculture, with iconography, such as the Sprouting Head, showing trophy heads and plants growing and some of the plants were in the shape of the trophy heads. The burial of the heads suggests that the trophy heads may have been from Nazca people and not from other people. During the Middle Nazca period, the number of severed heads appeared to have increased, this may be due to the pan-Andean drought. In the late Nazca period, the number of trophy heads reaches its peak with the skulls having an increase in damage to the skull when compared to previous periods. (Edit over) Late Nazca iconography suggests that the prestige of the leaders of Late Nazca society was enhanced by successful headhunting.