Cleveland Museum of Art

Kero (Waisted Cup)

Date

400–1000

Medium

earthenware with colored slips

Culture

Bolivia, Cochabamba(?), Tiwanaku style, 400-1000

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The kero is a distinctive Tiwanaku vessel form, imitated by the later Inka, who used the cups in political and religious ceremonies. It is assumed that the same was true at Tiwanaku, where impressive stone figures, perhaps rulers, hold keros as though they are emblems of authority. Perhaps, like the Inka, the Tiwanaku used keros to drink chicha, a corn beer shared to cement bonds of mutual obligation among allies.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.