Clay vessel from ancient Peru, Moche culture (100 BC - 700 AD), in the shape of a head with red engobe. The head is shaped like a grimace with large eyes, pronounced wrinkled areas around the mouth and eyes and a grimacing, contorted mouth with fangs. He wears a headdress or headband, which presumably shows the face of a (predatory) cat in the centre, its paws protruding from the side of the head and its tail hanging down the back of the head. A chin strap is attached below the two cat paws; the ears are adorned with large pegs. The depiction suggests that this is the head of the so-called "Ai apaec / Aiapæc", the supreme deity of the Moche culture (creator god). He was often depicted with a human-like face, jaguar fangs and sometimes with a jaguar head crown. The vessel probably came into the collection in the late 19th century. No further details are known about the circumstances of its acquisition. The spout on the forehead is broken off and no longer exists; it was probably a stirrup-shaped spout, as it was attached to the head from both sides. The so-called stirrup or fork-necked vessels were a common type of vessel in the Moche culture.