WORTHINGTON FINE ART GALLERIES

Rare Pre-Columbian Chorrera Pottery Whistling Jar.  Pre-Columbian Pottery from Ecuador, Chorrera culture, ca. 700 – 500 BCE. This is a pottery figure of a corpulent female with the characteristic “dwarf” style from pre-Columbian cultures. The figure appears female, with breasts and a large belly. She wears ear spools and some kind of necklace and what appears to be an animal suit that covers everything except her face. The figure is hollow and a spout extends from her head. Dwarves were believed to have magical powers in many pre-Columbian cultures and are often associated with shamanism; the animal suit that this figure wears may be indicative of the transformative powers between humans and animals that some shamans were believed to gain through ritual practices.

The Chorrera culture or Chorrera tradition is a Late Formative indigenous culture that flourished between 1300 BCE and 300 BCE in Ecuador.  Chorrera culture was one of the most widespread cultures in pre-Columbian Ecuador, spanning the Pacific lowlands to the Andean highlands, and even into southern Colombia.

In 467 BCE, the Pululahua Volcano north of Quito erupted, sending volcanic ash over much of the western Ecuadorian lowland regions, which greatly reduced the expressions of Chorrera culture; however, some Chorrera settlements in the far north and south continued for several centuries. These evolved into more complex cultures of the Regional Developmental Period of 200 and 300 BCE.