Penguin ship: a 1,600 -year -old jar in the shape of a known animal to make projectile poop
Name: Penguin ship
What is: A painted ceramic ship
Where he comes from: Southwest coast of Peru
When it was done: Between 350 AD and 500
In relation: Crown of Monomachos: the 1000 -year -old crown honoring “the one who fights alone” found by a farmer in a field
What he tells us about the past:
The Nazca people lived in a tropical desert on the southwest coast of Peru between 100 BC and 800 AD. So how did they know what penguin looked like, and why did they honor one with his own ceramic pot?
This painted penguin jar is in the collection of Chicago Art Institute. It was manufactured about 1,600 years ago and was collected in Peru at the end of the 19th century. The multicolored ceramic ship measures 8.2 inches (20.8 centimeters) in height and has tiny carved wings and a prominent invoice.
Nazca people (also spelled nasca) are best known for their enormous geoglyphs – conceptions that are sculpted in the ground but are most easily seen from above. Hundreds of Nazca lines were discovered. They often represent images of the natural world, such as a cata monkey, a pelican and a whale. Experts do not know why Nazca created these geoglyphs, because culture has left no written file.
But Nazca pottery Animals, people, mythical creatures and gods also in unique and multicolored styles recalling geoglyphsemphasizing the importance of these creatures for their society.
More amazing artifacts
According to the Art Institute of Chicago, this ship is a rare representation of the Humboldt Penguin (Humboldti Spheniscus), a species that lives along the Pacific coast and is known for Projectile poop. Penguins can live along the Peruvian coast thanks to the Humboldt current, which brings icy antarctic water to the north, scary tropical water. Humboldt’s penguins have Prospered in Peru for centuries, but they are now vulnerable to extinction due to climate change and human encroachment.
The Penguin vessel dates from a period when Nazca experienced realistic representations of animals, including a lobster -shaped ship and many examples of “mythical moult. “Although the Orca – which appears in ceramic, geoglyphs and petroglyphs – was clearly an important symbol for Nazca, experts do not know if the penguin ship had a particular meaning or if it reflects the lively observation of the Nazca of the natural world which surrounds them.
