Description
Volume 3 in this series on Pre-Columbian figurines concentrates on pottery figurines from the south coast, the highlands and the 'Selva' (tropical rain forests) of Peru. It details a collection of 784 figurines: 536 from the South Coast, 230 from the Sierra and 18 from the Selva. The main aim of this work has been to record the figurines and to classify them into iconographically and stylistically meaningful groups, thus providing a user-friendly Corpus. For each geographic area the figurine groups are presented in chronological order. Each figurine is listed on a Table, containing all the relevant data (collection, site provenance, sex, measurements, surface colour, manufacturing technique, special features and reference to publications) and is illustrated on a Plate. The analytical part lists the group characteristics and discusses special features, links with other groups, context, geographic distribution and chronology of each group or sub-group. Volume 1 (The Pottery Figurines of the North Coast of Peru has already appeared as BAR S1941 (2009).
REVIEW
‘The lasting value of studies such as this lies in the data presentation, and this is the case here. Morgan includes a valuable list of gravelots…and 36 analytical tables…listing the corpus according to geography and chronology;…Morgan’s book can be recommended as a valuable addition to the ‘hard’ literature of Andean archaeology and will be an important future reference.’ David M. Browne, Antiquity, 87, 2013