2-668-341 - © CM Dixon/Heritage Images

Pottery Bowl from Coast Tianuanaco Culture, Peru, 600-1000. Pottery bowl on three feet painted with crowned heads and a check pattern. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important civilizations prior to the rise of the Inca Empire; it was the ritual and administrative center of a major culture for approximately five hundred years. Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.