Head Fragment
Head Fragment
Tiwanaku
A.D. 400–1000
Bolivia
Basalt
Gift of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 1992.503
This head was likely broken from a small sculpture of a man dressed in elaborately patterned garments. Similar sculptures of monumental scale were erected at Tiwanaku, located in the Bolivian altiplano (high plains) near Lake Titicaca. Tiwanaku was the capital of a powerful state that exerted political, cultural, and economic influence throughout a large region that included territories that are now part of Peru and Chile. The large statues likely represent Tiwanaku rulers or lineage founders, and were the focus of public veneration. This much smaller work was probably used in more private rituals.
- "Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca"— Denver Art Museum, 10/16/2004 — 1/23/2005
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