Quero (qero, kero) with agricultural ceremony scene
- Inca (Inka)
- 17th–18th century
The ritual consumption of maize beer, or aqha (a’qa) was associated with the agricultural calendar. The complex scene on this vessel portrays an agricultural ceremony, illustrating figures bent over planting while a seated female holds a goblet, or quero, near a storage vessel, or aryballos. The central band includes a set of colonial tocapo (tokapu), grid block designs meant to recall the exclusive Inca textile motifs. Notably, this vessel was so prized that it was repaired with a metal rim.
Kimberly L. Jones, PhD, Inca: Conquests of the Andes / Los Incas y las conquistas de los Andes, Label text [1976.W.1851; 1983.W.1854], 2015.
- In his 1976 report, Junius B. Bird, curator emeritus of South American archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History, notes: "Colonial. **16 Kero, showing a man ploughing with oxen; wears Inca costume; followed by 2 women (Inca costume) and man carrying keros. Another woman has large jar for corn beer outside of a house."