Mantegna Culture - Pre-columbian Whistling Vase With Double Body Decorated With A Monkey

Black terracotta whistling vase with shiny slip composed of two globular receptacles joined at the base by a tube and by an arched handle in the upper part. The left part represents a seated monkey with its mouth open, holding an object in its hands. The right part, devoid of any decoration, is surmounted by a small vertical tapered neck.

Mantegna culture - Ecuador.
5th century BC - 5th century AD

Dimensions:
Length: 26 cm.
Height: 18.5 cm.
Width: 11 cm.

In Ecuador, the use of bottles as containers for liquids appeared at the end of the Machalilla culture (1600 BC to 800 BC). Whistling jars were built and perfected during the Chorrera culture (900 BC to 100 BC), and eventually resulted in polyphonic bottles during the Bahía culture (500 BC to 650 AD).

The intriguing shape of the whistling vases, composed of two chambers connected by a horizontal pipe, makes it possible to obtain sounds when a liquid moves between them.

During the Chorrera phase, molded aesthetic elements were developed and incorporated: zoomorphic, phytomorphic and anthropomorphic figures or architectural forms, in reference to the sounds that these instruments produced, imitations of those heard in nature (birds, monkeys or even frogs).