Wooden strut with figural finial ·  Peru, northern coast, Chancay · ID: 3038626

Description

wood, matt dark brown patina, fragmentary staff with three square holes, old collection numbers handwritten in white paint “S-30” and “GPI/60”, remains of an old paper label as well, base;
for a long time such staffs were thought to be weaving parts (uprights for a loom). Possibly they served as uprights for carrycots. Cords would have been passed through the holes to form a trellis to support the child. They might have been previously used in the construction of the back of a litter. Of course, no interpretation is really satisfying when not supported by an archeological context.

Comparing literature

Purini, Sergio & André Emmerich, La sculpture en bois dans l'ancien Pérou, Paris 2006, ill. 42