Standing Male Figure 1300–1470 Chimú The dry conditions of Peru’s coastal desert allows for the preservation of organic materials such as wood and cloth—materials that in most other parts of the Americas would not have survived centuries exposed to the elements or buried in the ground. This standing male figure, now missing its lower legs, wears a flat-topped conical headdress and large round ear ornaments. Below a strong browline are oval-shaped eyes, a prominent nose, a small oval-shaped mouth, and lines indicating nasolabial folds. He wears a wide loincloth and holds a tall, cylindrical obj

Standing Male Figure 1300–1470 Chimú The dry conditions of Peru’s coastal desert allows for the preservation of organic materials such as wood and cloth—materials that in most other parts of the Americas would not have survived centuries exposed to the elements or buried in the ground. This standing male figure, now missing its lower legs, wears a flat-topped conical headdress and large round ear ornaments. Below a strong browline are oval-shaped eyes, a prominent nose, a small oval-shaped mouth, and lines indicating nasolabial folds. He wears a wide loincloth and holds a tall, cylindrical object between his hands. Its tapered shape suggests that it represents a type of beaker known from Peru’s North Coast (see, for example, MMA , .185).* Particularly ornate versions of these tall vessels, made of silver and gold, have been found at Chan Chan, capital of the Chimú kingdom (Pillsbury, Potts, and Richter, 2017:cat. 72; Ríos and Retamozo 1982). These drinking vessels would have been used in ritual feasts that were at the heart of Andean statecraft. The figure’s loincloth wraps around the body, and at the back, its curved lower edge extends to the upper thighs. Seen from behind, the slightly pointed shape of the figure’s ears is more pronounced. This ear shape is associated with depictions of figures from Lambayeque, a northern region the Chimú conquered in the fourteenth century. Heavily weathered, the figure was likely once painted. Such wood sculptures were installed at entrances to buildings and tombs on the North Coast. Most notably, sculptures of the scale of the present example stood as sentries in entryways of the palaces of Chan Chan. This vast adobe city, the remains of which can still be seen outside of the modern city of Trujillo, thrived between ca. 1000 and 1470, when it fell to the invading Inca army. Chan Chan encompasses some 8 square miles (20 km2), and is dominated by ten royal compounds with high perimeter walls thoug

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