28. Stirrup-spout bottle with feline. Chimú; North Coast, Peru, 1100–1470 ce. Ceramic, H. 11 ⼀攀 in. (28.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Cummings, 1964 (64.228.17) with a 昀氀ared rim. Large urpus (up to 45 inches in height) llama neck and head. The second spout, in the shape of a were used for storage; they could be transported easily by bird neck and head, connects to the larger, outer bowl. A porters, who would run a rope through the handles and third animal, a spotted jaguar, lounges across the lip of the across the animal-head lug on the shoulder of the vessel. vessel and grips the rim with its paws. This structurally Smaller versions (昀椀g. 29) served votive purposes at sacred complex, iconographically rich work was likely deployed sites across the empire. Most include panels of geometric in rituals designed to ensure the fertility of the lands. patterning delicately painted in polychrome slips, usually black and red on a cream-colored background. Containers of Substances Other Inca vessels are more idiosyncratic in shape Most 昀椀ne ceramics from ancient Peru are containers— and conception. A small, shallow, slightly incurved bottles, jars, bowls, and other vessels—presumably libation bowl with three short supports and panels with designed to hold liquids or other materials. Traces of insects painted on the exterior merits close examination their contents, left behind in microscopic amounts in the (昀椀g. 30). A second, smaller bowl, formed in the interior interiors of the vessels, are beginning to be analyzed and of the outer bowl, was pierced on the bottom, its cham- identi昀椀ed, revealing an array of substances that were once ber connected to a cream-colored spout in the shape of a present, including beer. Recent studies have brought to 29