ABSTRACT
In the archaeological record, clearly from the Middle Horizon onward but also earlier, some of the drinking vessels or tumblers called qiru made of wood, ceramic, or metal, were fashioned around the form of a head or skull. So let us try to contextualize some qiru designs, as part of the trophy-head complex and an associated Andean theory of memory practice. This chapter explores the feline-rainbow motif gives us other clues to the visual representation of the power of trophy heads, which may also relate highland warring practices to lowland ones. This might be why the focus in the qiru designs is on the youthful couple and their combined power to appropriate the spirit of the trophy head and so generate the production of flowers, trees, and other vegetative elements as well as animals across Inka territory.
