The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Plug for the bottom of Container in the form of a Sacrificer

770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)

Peru, Middle Horizon, Wari Culture, 7th -11th century

wood and red pigment (cinnabar)
Overall: 10.8 x 7 x 7.5 cm (4 1/4 x 2 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.193.b
Location: 232 Andean

Did You Know?

Traces of cinnabar, a toxic mercuric sulfide, are visible on the container's surface.

Description

This plug is on the bottom of a container that assumes the shape of a magnificent, feline-headed, supernatural sacrificer who draws a knife across the throat of the human it holds in its lap. Severed human heads hang from the feline's belt and dangle by the trachea at the back of its headdress. Sacrifice had a place in Wari religious practice, probably as an unusual and exceptionally precious offering made to entice the benevolence of cosmic forces. Indeed, colonial-period Andean people believed that death was a prerequisite for the renewal of the world.
  • ?-1967
    Erich Stumpf, Austria
    1967-2000
    Anton Roeckl, Irschenberg, Germany
    2007
    (David Bernstein Fine Art, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2007-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 333
  • {{cite web|title=plug for the bottom of Container in the form of a Sacrificer|url=false|author=|year=770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.193.b