Container in the form of a Sacrificer (770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)): Art, History and Details

Container in the form of a Sacrificer (770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This container assumes the shape of a magnificent, feline-headed, supernatural sacrificer who draws a knife across the throat of the human it holds in its lap. Severed human heads hang from the feline's belt and dangle by the trachea at the back of its headdress. Sacrifice had a place in Wari religious practice, probably as an unusual and exceptionally precious offering made to entice the benevolence of cosmic forces. Indeed, colonial-period Andean people believed that death was a prerequisite for the renewal of the world.

Object facts

• Title: Container in the form of a Sacrificer
• Date: 770–890 (radiocarbon date, 95% probability)
• Culture: Peru, Middle Horizon, Wari Culture
• Type: Wood
• Technique: wood and red pigment (cinnabar)
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.8 x 7 x 7.5 cm (4 1/4 x 2 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 2007.193.a

A detail from the museum

Traces of cinnabar, a toxic mercuric sulfide, are visible on the container's surface.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.