The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Kero (Waisted Cup)

400–1000

Bolivia, Cochabamba, Tiwanaku style, 400-1000

(?)
earthenware with colored slips
Overall: 22.3 x 17 cm (8 3/4 x 6 11/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1963.476
Location: 232 Andean

Description

The kero is a distinctive Tiwanaku vessel form, imitated by the later Inka, who used the cups in political and religious ceremonies. It is assumed that the same was true at Tiwanaku, where impressive stone figures, perhaps rulers, hold keros as though they are emblems of authority. Perhaps, like the Inka, the Tiwanaku used keros to drink chicha, a corn beer shared to cement bonds of mutual obligation among allies.
  • Ekholm, Gordon F. Pre-Columbian Art, the Native Art of America before the Conquest: Jan. 10-Feb. 1, 1953. Palm Beach, FL: Society of the Four Arts, 1952. Mentioned: cat. no. 85
    Purin, Sergio. Inca-Perú: 3000 Ans d’Histoire: Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Bruxelles, 21.9-30.12, 1990. Gent: Imschoot, 1990. Reproduced: p. 150, pl. 184
    Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1991. Reproduced: p. 18
    Richardson, James B. People of the Andes. 1st ed. Montreal; Washington, DC: St. Remy Press; Smithsonian Books, 1994. p. 129
    Munsterberg, Hugo, and Marjorie Munsterberg. World Ceramics: From Prehistoric to Modern Times. New York: Penguin Studio Books, 1998. Reproduced: p. 72, pl. 67
    Young-Sánchez, Margaret. Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca. Denver, CO, Lincoln, NE: Denver Art Museum; University of Nebraska Press, 2004. cat. no. 6.20, p. 169
  • Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca. Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (organizer) (October 16, 2004-January 23, 2005).
    Peru: Les Incas. Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium (organizer) (September 21, 1990-January 20, 1991).
    Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).
    Treasures of Peruvian Gold. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).
    Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
    Pre-Columbian Art: The Native Art of America Before the Conquest. The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL (January 10-February 1,1953).
  • {{cite web|title=Kero (Waisted Cup)|url=false|author=|year=400–1000|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.476