This exquisite black ware vessel is adorned with a modeled human head and the incised and resin-painted decoration typical of the Paracas style. As with much early Peruvian art, the lines between the secular world and the supernatural one are blurred. Is this individual with his boldly painted features some demon god associated with burial rituals, or is he simply a person of earthly importance? With its curious mixture of the primitive and the sophisticated, the vessel has a pleasing effect on modern sensibilities. It evokes a world at once very distant and at the same time recognizably human.