
+WHISTLES - five animals, Chorrera culture (1300 - 300 BC), Ecuador, pre-Columbian pottery.
Five ceramic figurines representing animals and acting as whistles. They depict, among others, an owl, a dog (?), a cow (?). The figurines have 2 or more holes, so that when blowing into one, the sound comes out of the other. The capacity and shape of the acoustic chamber determine the pitch of the sound produced.
Description
Ecuador, Chorrera culture (1300 - 300 BC) / Bahia (300 BC - 500 AD) / Guangala (200 BC - 800 AD).
Length 5.2cm / 6.4cm / 6.5cm / 8.8cm / 10.3cm.
The state of preservation is visible in the photos, there are some defects and old repairs. The vessel comes from a large collection of a Polish engineer who worked on road construction in Ecuador in the 70s and 80s.
The Chorrera culture (ca. 1300 - 300 BC) was another culture after the Valdivia and Machalilla cultures in which artists made ceramic vessels. However, it was only the artists of the Chorrera culture who developed so many types of vessels and various representations of people and animals. Ceramics could have practical applications, e.g. bottles used to store drinks, but very often they had religious or ritual significance. Figurines or bottles with additional small holes also served as musical instruments: they could make a sound like a whistle, and two-chamber vessels also made a sound when pouring liquids between chambers. The representations of animals and people by the artists of the Chorrera culture are quite naturalistic, but with a greater or lesser degree of stylization. In today's Ecuador, after the Chorrera civilization, there was a period of regional development, where several civilizations developed, including La Tolita -Tumaco, Jama Coaque, Bahía and Guangala. The ceramics of each of these cultures developed many distinctive features, often departing from the "classical" and naturalistic pottery of the Chorrera culture.