Feline Bottle 12th-15th century Chimú As early as the beginning of the second millennium B.C., artists in northern Peru produced ceramics of remarkable technical refinement, aesthetic appeal, and iconographic complexity. By the time this vessel was madealmost 3,000 years later by the potters of the Chimú cultureceramic production emphasized efficiency and repetition rather than artistic and technological excellence. Although Chimú potters used the forms, imagery, and techniques employed by their predecessors, their wares can at times appear mass-produced in comparison. However, some vessels, even though made in molds, as is the present example, are well modeled with carefully finished surfaces, implying a considerable investment of time and skill. The black color was achieved by firing the ceramic under conditions of limiting oxygen, thereby generating soot that bound to the vessel surface. The pottery was burnished after firing to produce the shiny black surface. This bottle depicts