Chancay Bone Balance Bar | Seven Hand-in-Hand Figures

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Chancay, ca. 1000–1200 CE. A miniature beam of carved bone from a handheld balance scale, worked in openwork on both faces. Seven blocky figures stand shoulder to shoulder along its upper edge, arms extended to clasp their neighbors' hands, their faces reduced to drilled pinprick eyes and slot mouths picked out in red. Squared uprights terminate each end, once carrying the suspension cords for the pans. The long integral bar beneath them is incised with a continuous row of drilled ring-and-dot elements darkened with black pigment. The mellow ivory-toned surface has acquired a soft patina. Such steelyard beams weighed small quantities of coca, pigment, and precious metal, and their figural friezes turned an instrument of exchange into an object of display. Mounted on a custom lucite and hardwood base. Size: 4" L (10.2 cm L).

The Chancay flourished along the central Peruvian coast between roughly 1000 and 1470 CE, in the valleys north of present-day Lima, and were absorbed into the Inca empire late in that span. Their dry cemeteries preserved an unusually rich inventory of perishable and small-scale goods: gauze textiles, painted cuchimilco figures, wooden implements, and delicately carved bone.

Balance beams of this type belong to a widespread Andean weighing tradition. A cord at the center supported the beam while netted pouches hung from the notched or perforated ends, and the operator adjusted the load until the bar hung level. Because the commodities measured were valuable and light, coca leaf above all, the instruments themselves were small and often elaborately embellished. The frieze of linked figures, a motif that recurs in Chancay textiles and painted ceramics, has been read as a dance or processional line, though the reading remains interpretive rather than documented.

Provenance: Collection of Jimmy Belilty, Miami. Acquired from Gerardo Roca, NYC., 1990’s.

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Item #

73214

Condition
Nice mellow surface patina. Intact, excellent condition.

Buyer's Premium
30%