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THE HISTORY OF GOLD
SOUTH COAST AND SOUTHERN ANDES
Article # : gold179
SOUTH COAST AND SOUTHERN ANDES
On the south coast and in the southern Andean regions of present-day Peru and Bolivia, artisans of ancient cultures such as Nazca and Paracas used sheet gold to create adornments such as glittering wristbands and headdress plumes. Gold objects were cut, engraved and beaten into sheets as thin as a strand of human hair.
Both Nazca and Paracas cultures observed elaborate burial rituals. At Paracas, the mummified corpses were wrapped in many layers of ornately embroidered shrouds. Golden emblems were sewn into the wrappings, allowing the deceased to take the precious metal into the next world. The dead were also accompanied by intricately woven textiles, ceramics, food and tools.
These ancient peoples portrayed plants and animals in their metal, ceramic, and textile decoration, such as hummingbirds, whales, snakes, flowers, cacti, cat's whiskers and floating faces. Objects often depict supernatural beings:. A common image is a two-headed serpent with a human body, crested back and feline face.
Ornaments were found wrapped in mummy bundles along with textiles, ceramic vessels, food and many other objects.
Nazca goldworking, not highly developed, was usually two-dimensional.
GOLD OF THE INCA
The Inca amassed one of the greatest accumulations of gold in history. A garden populated with life-size plants, animals, men and women made of gold formed part of the temple of the sun in Cuzco, the Inca capital. Enormous gold earplugs framed the faces of men of the ruling elite. Royal women fastened their garments with large pins known as tupus. Virtually all of the Inca's golden treasure was melted down, first in a vain attempt to ransom their captured king. Then, after his execution, more gold was commandeered to fill the coffers of the Spanish treasury.
This portrait from the 1700s shows Atahualpa, the Inca king captured by the Spanish, held for ransom and then executed. He is wearing imagined gold objects and sitting on a golden throne. By the time this portrait was painted, almost all of the Inca gold objects sent back to the Spanish king, Charles V, had been melted down.
The Inca King is Told of the Spanish Hunger for Gold
Around 1615, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, an indigenous Andean, wrote a 1200-page illustrated letter to the king of Spain, describing the greatness of the pre-conquest world, and often making sarcastic comments on the habits of the European invaders. In the accompanying drawing, the Inca king, Wayna Capac, asked the Spaniard " … what he ate: he responded in Spanish and by sign language that he ate silver and gold. So they gave him much gold dust … and silver and gold vessels, and he carried all these treasures back to Spain."
Miniature tupu pins were used to fasten the garments of gold or silver figurines left on mountaintops as offerings to the mountain spirits. The figurines frequently accompanied young women who were sacrificed in order to avert earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Source: AMNH.org