Mummy bundle head,

300–1 BCE

The Paracas culture of the arid south coast of Peru flourished during the final millennium BCE, incorporating Chavín-style imagery and artistic techniques from its contemporaries in Peru’s central highlands into distinctly local styles. Although the culture is most famous for intricate embroidered textiles, wrapped in many layers around mummies, Paracas ceramics also merit appreciation. Paracas ceramics were incised with the outlines of their dense, often geometric designs while the clay was still leather-hard. After firing, the vessels were painted with mineral pigments suspended in plant resin. The resin may then have been carefully heated to smooth the surface, as no brush marks are evident. This technique allowed for brilliant coloration in a wide range of hues. Powerful animals and supernatural creatures—including the Oculate Being, so called because of its prominent eyes—appear with frequency.

This object presents the face of a character in Paracas art that scholars call the Oculate Being because of its oversize eyes. The Oculate Being was frequently depicted with undulating two-headed creatures extending across its face. These are likely inspired by armored sea robins, fish whose heads resemble those of the animals depicted on this bundle head. At the top of the mask, a reduced-scale version of the Oculate Being’s face appears but with a human body. Small perforations around the perimeter suggest that this ceramic object was once sewn to a substrate, likely a thickly wrapped bundle containing a deceased person. Paracas mummy bundles typically incorporate many layers of fine textiles, interspersed with other kinds of objects, presumably imbuing the whole with complex meanings.