Double-chambered Bottle: Moon Goddess and Animals

The Chimú would exercise their hegemony over the north coast of Peru until the Inca conquest on the strength of a vision of the world in which the worship of ancestors and the moon were of paramount importance. Anthropomorphic deities then lost a significant portion of the feline features typical of previous periods. On this bottle, the goddess often associated with symbols of the sea and moon is recognizable by her crescent-shaped headdress. On its belly is the Moon Animal, the mythical being that was already a presence among the Mochica, but that assumed even greater importance in Chimú art. Such bottles have been found not only in the capital, Chan Chan, located in the Moche Valley, but also in the valleys conquered by the Chimú, attesting to the extent of the area they occupied.