Abstract

One of the foremost modern researchers to address the subject of pre-Hispanic wooden queros (drinking vessels or ceremonial cups) was J. H. Rowe, who was the first to note that those decorated with incisions were early Inca (Rowe 1961). Since that time, there has been no attempt to update the subject in light of archaeological findings of the last 50 years. The object of this article is therefore to test Rowe's classification by comparing it with a corpus of cups of this type excavated from the coastal desert of the central-southern Andean zone or discovered in capacochas (Inka ritual human sacrifices) in the high Andes, currently preserved in museums in Chile and elsewhere. From the Norte Grande of Chile there are examples from archaeological contexts in cemeteries along the coast and in inland valleys, where Inca incised queros sometimes appear in funerary spaces along with wooden queros in local styles following Late Intermediate traditions. Although few of these sites have been dated by radiocarbon dating, their chronological location can be defined by analysis of the funerary materials, which confirm Rowe's cultural attribution for the incised queros – as will be shown below – and their presence over time from the Late Horizon (or Inca period) onwards. Based on an analysis of the designs of these cups, a limited set of recurring geometrical motifs, spatial compositions and patterns can be defined, many of which do not continue into the colonial period.