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Source Description
The Nasca people were organized politically into small, competing chiefdoms, and warfare was common. This vessel represents a freshly severed human head (probably that of a captured and sacrificed prisoner) with staring eyes, gaping mouth, and blood-red underside. Modeling of the mouth cavity, tongue, and teeth lends the image a startling realism. Human sacrifice by decapitation was a central element of Nasca religion, essential to agricultural fertility. Severed heads were emptied and dried, then pierced through the forehead and suspended from a thick cord. Such preserved heads have been recovered from offering deposits and from tombs, where they were buried with their captors.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
159910
label
Severed Head Effigy Vessel
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
159910
contentType
object
title
Severed Head Effigy Vessel
description
The Nasca people were organized politically into small, competing chiefdoms, and warfare was common. This vessel represents a freshly severed human head (probably that of a captured and sacrificed prisoner) with staring eyes, gaping mouth, and blood-red underside. Modeling of the mouth cavity, tongue, and teeth lends the image a startling realism. Human sacrifice by decapitation was a central element of Nasca religion, essential to agricultural fertility. Severed heads were emptied and dried, then pierced through the forehead and suspended from a thick cord. Such preserved heads have been recovered from offering deposits and from tombs, where they were buried with their captors.
date
c. 100–350 CE
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79980276
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 22 x 20.5 x 24.5 cm (8 11/16 x 8 1/16 x 9 5/8 in.)
cul
Peru, South Coast, Nasca
accession
1997.2
Source extras
tec
earthenware with colored slips
tombstone
Severed Head Effigy Vessel, c. 100–350 CE. Peru, South Coast, Nasca. Earthenware with colored slips; overall: 22 x 20.5 x 24.5 cm (8 11/16 x 8 1/16 x 9 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund, 1997.2
collection
AA - Andes
citations
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Neoclassical Marble, Rare Korean Sculpture, Other Recent CMA Acquisitions Now on View,” April 16, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
creditline
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:18:04.396000
sourceId
159910
dept
Art of the Americas
coll
AA - Andes
med
earthenware with colored slips
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
536a55b900eb58dd