1. Mesa assembled by healer Victor Flores Capuñay, 1987 process erased the archaeological context of the works particularly ancient ones, are often viewed as passive they contained, limiting a broader understanding of pots objects. Functional and utilitarian, they are sometimes linked to a speci昀椀c place and time. seen as the less glamorous cousins of monumental stone Looting is also the primary means by which healers sculpture and gold regalia and are thus overlooked as source antiquities for their mesas, and both curanderos and bearers of meaning. Their ubiquity has also worked traditional huaqueros (individuals or families engaged in against them in terms of aesthetic appreciation. Yet small-scale extractions) exist in a world where archaeolog- in ancient Peru, pottery was very much considered a ical sites are considered powerful huacas and the pottery primary “canvas” for the expression of ideas and, more found in them, often referred to as huacos, are valued out- important, the activation of divine power. Literally of 4 side the discourse of cultural heritage or the art market. the earth, ceramics connect communities, both now These huaqueros operate at the margins of legality, but the and in the past, with an animate landscape, the realm practice is seen as accessing an inheritance left by their of the ancestors. In antiquity, ceramic vessels acquired ancestors: one that they can beseech for help in supporting their vital potency in the hands of their creators, which their families. The huaquero’s actions imply a relationship was further strengthened through use in ritual practice. with an enlivened entity (the archaeological site), and his Today, these vessels achieve transformative strength or her success depends on the willingness of the huaca through their connection to a distant past and, especially, to give its treasures away or, instead, to cause harm, even to their source, the huacas themselves, the tangible leg- “eating” the huaqueros alive. acy of the vibrant religious centers that once populated Beyond the communities in which such objects are the Peruvian landscape. consigned meaning and power, these ceramic vessels, 5