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

A hope for a bigger herd, painted on a shard.

This ofrenda is a votive tablet with a camelid herd painted on a pottery fragment, from the Chuquibamba culture of Chucu, Arequipa, Peru, 13th century, in earthenware and pigment. Andean herders depended on their llamas and alpacas, and scholars generally read tablets like this as prayers for the increase of the flock. White, red and gray animals crowd the curved reddish shard, heads raised and legs drawn as simple stripes, with dots scattered among them. The pigment is matte and friable. 8 inches wide and 6.5 high.

Whether it worked, the record does not say.