Chuquibamba Ofrenda - Votive Tablet with Camelid Herd Painted on Pottery Fragment

A herd of camelids, painted on a piece of a broken pot, still all accounted for.

This ofrenda, or votive tablet, is a pottery fragment painted with a camelid herd, Chuquibamba culture, from Chucu in Arequipa, Peru, 13th century, in earthenware and pigment. Herds of llamas and alpacas sustained life in the Andes, and such painted offerings are thought to have been made to ask for their health and increase, though much about them remains uncertain. Stick-like animals and figures in orange-red, white and gray scatter across the worn clay surface, with small dots between them. Eleven and a quarter inches wide and seven and three quarters high.

Somebody cared how many there were.