The goldsmiths of Sipán were masters at combining gold or copper with shell and stone, as exemplified by a mas-sive owl headdress.. Panamanian metalsmiths worked in tumbaga, an alloy wit
Trang 1The goldsmiths of Sipán were masters at combining
gold or copper with shell and stone, as exemplified by a
mas-sive owl headdress The owl at the center of the headdress is
three-dimensional, its eyes inlaid with white shell and
tur-quoise Goldsmiths attached bangles to the owl’s large gold
wings with gold wire, an ensemble that must have created
impressive sounds and reflected light as the priest walked
in procession
The explosion of creativity that took place after 500 c.e
throughout Central America, in Costa Rica, and in Panama
was mostly influenced by developments in Colombia Gold
and copper were abundant in Panama, where gold indicated
status, both in life and death Panamanian metalsmiths
worked in tumbaga, an alloy with a high percentage of
cop-per mixed with gold These artisans embossed gold plaques
with representations of fantastic creatures Human and
ani-mal figural pendants were also formed in lost wax, as was the
openwork, or false filigree, that ornamented these works
In Costa Rica gold casting began around 500, with
influ-ences from Panama and Colombia Costa Rican goldsmiths
were adept at depletion gilding, a technique that produced a
seamless surface layer of gold A good example of this kind
of work, a frog pendant from Chaparrón, was first formed of
tumbaga The goldsmith removed the surface copper by
heat-ing the piece in an open hearth until the copper oxidized
He then used a plant-based acid solution to dissolve the black
oxidized copper from the surface, leaving behind a thin layer
of almost pure gold that could be burnished to a high finish
After 500 in the Caribbean lowlands of Colombia, Zenú
caciques, or leaders of chiefdoms, had become powerful and
resourceful and were commissioning gold adornments to
in-dicate their status Near important sources of raw gold, the
Cauca and Nechí rivers, Zenú metalsmiths mastered gold
casting and depletion gilding The artisans imitated the
ap-pearance of plumage on the figure of a bird by using false
filigree and cast-wire swirls and spirals The Zenú also
embel-lished wooden idols with sheets of gold Twenty-four of these
idols were discovered in a temple in the ceremonial center
at Finzenú A significant development among the Zenú was
that a portion of the gold production was meant for trade, for
Zenú pieces have been discovered at some distance
In the Cordillera Oriental mountain range of Colombia,
the Tairona and Muisca people had very different approaches
to metalsmithing For the Muisca (after 800), votive objects
in gold with copper alloy were cast in the lost-wax technique,
but with a difference These artisans used a stone matrix, with
several designs carved in high relief on one stone The
carv-ing was impressed into the clay, which when dry was coated
with beeswax on the outer surface The wax was impressed
with the stone relief, thus creating a negative and positive
imprint in the wax Several objects could be produced from the one wax model, imprinted with different designs from the single stone
In contrast to the Muisca, the Tairona goldsmiths cre-ated elaborate clay core images that were destroyed at the time the mold was broken open and the gold object removed The Tairona were less interested in producing multiples and more focused on a refined finished piece These pendants are highly symbolic, very unlike the simpler votive figures
of the Muisca
In the northern coastal region of Peru, the Sicán (after 900) had access to copper and arsenic-bearing ore deposits They could acquire gold and silver from the northern high-lands The Sicán metalsmiths worked in high-carat gold al-loys, silver, arsenical bronze, silver alloyed with copper, and
tumbaga They added small amounts of arsenic to improve
the hardness and malleability of copper, giving the metal a silvery appearance
These artisans were particularly adept at producing gold sheets and enhancing their designs with repoussé, chasing, and joining In one Sicán tomb, archaeologists found
thou-sands of depletion-gilded tumbaga squares that had originally
been sown onto a costume, creating a resplendent display The Sicán metalsmiths also did surface depletion of silver from gold Masks and ceremonial headdresses are indicative
of the sophistication reached by these artisans, in terms of alloying, combining metals and stones, and of their techni-cal expertise Movement and articulation became part of the design of the piece One headdress, measuring 3 feet high by
2 feet wide, included gold bangles, some with turquoise inlay, portrait heads of deities cut from silvery-colored gold alloy sheets, feline heads of gold alloy, and the mask itself, which
was made up of several sheets of gold and tumbaga.
The Chimú, at their capital of Chan Chan on Peru’s north coast, developed (after 1000) a distinctively elegant and aes-thetic approach to gold ornament and jewelry Meant for os-tentatious display for the Chimú nobility, most pieces were produced from gold sheets Reflective of this preference is a pair of ear spools, each comprising more than 100 tiny gold pieces, soldered or stapled into a profuse and extravagant pat-tern Chimú goldsmiths also mastered the technique of gran-ulation They cut out small pieces from a gold sheet, placing them on a heated charcoal block During the melting process, surface tension caused the gold pieces to become spheres To adhere the tiny beads to a gold surface, the Chimú used cop-per-salt reduction or reaction soldering In this technique the granules were placed on an organic glue that had been mixed with a finely ground copper salt, like malachite With heat, the glue burned off and the copper salt was reduced to metal-lic copper in a liquid state At the points where the granules
metallurgy: The Americas 655