Mössbauer study of miniature vessels from the Sicán burial site of Huaca Loro

Small handmade ceramic vessels are often found in large quantities in late pre-hispanic elite tombs on the north coast of Peru. These miniature vessels are of poor artistic and technologic qualities compared with other offerings found in tombs and have not received much attention. Our hypothesis is that these miniatures were made hastily by non-elite funeral attendants, which resulted in the observed formal and material variability. Here we report on the results of a systematic archaeological analysis of the shape and of archaeometric analyses by Mössbauer spectroscopy and XRD of the firing conditions of such vessels that were conducted to test the above hypothesis. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.