Disk

This gilded and silvered copper disk, featuring a central figure with arms outstretched, was produced by artisans of the Moche culture in northern Peru. The sophisticated combination of silver and gold and the understanding of the complex processes needed to achieve these effects are hallmarks of Moche metalworking, perhaps the most advanced in all of the ancient Americas. The central gilded figure and the four radiating bands were each made separately and attached to the circular silvered disk via small tabs.

The figure wears a typical Moche headdress ornament called a frontlet that would have been affixed to a cylindrical headdress. It originally had eight swirls, thought to represent octopus tentacles, and a small, nearly three-dimensional owl’s head in the center (see Pillsbury, 2017: cat. no. 46, p. 158, for a full-scale example of a frontlet, and cat. no. 42, p. 156, for an example of an individual wearing such a headdress ornament). The figure’s eyes, earspools, and teeth were inlaid with shell, and his tunic – a garment worn exclusively by men in the ancient Andes – bears faint traces of an incised pattern. The tunic ends below the waist with a fringe of what may be depictions of metallic conical bells over a loincloth. In his right hand, the figure holds aloft a trophy head, rendered as a silvered copper attachment. In his left hand he likely held a crescent-bladed knife or tumi, also as an attachment, now missing. Four bands, each bisected by a line, emanate outward from the figure. Such rays may represent the eight legs of a spider (Alva, 2008; Cordy-Collins, 1992). Circular disks are suspended along the circumference of the disk, as well as along the four rays and the figure’s tunic. In its original state, the contrast of gold and silver must have been striking.

In Moche iconography, figures holding a trophy head and a tumi knife have been identified as a god known as the Decapitator. In many representations, the figure is also shown with barred teeth and an elaborate headdress (see, for example, another disk in the Met’s collection, 1987.394.50). The significance of the association of this powerful figure with spiders is unknown, put perhaps the manner in which spiders trap their prey in a web and liquefy their internal organs was considered analogous to the Moche practice of prisoner capture and sacrifice by bloodletting (Alva, 2008; Cordy-Collins, 1992).

The function of disks such the present example is unclear. They may have served as shield frontals, attached to a cane backing, but the delicate nature of the design would have limited its protective function in actual battle. Thus, these objects may have been intended for ritual use as symbolic weapon adornments. Alternatively, they may have been attached to textile banners or hangings.

The Moche (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from AD 200-850, centuries before the rise of the Incas. Over the course of some six centuries, the Moche built thriving regional centers from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to perhaps as far north as the Piura River, near the modern border with Ecuador, developing coastal deserts into rich farmlands and drawing upon the abundant maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. Although the precise nature of Moche political organization is a subject of debate, these centers shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

This object was said to have been found at the burial site of Loma Negra, which was one of the most northern outposts of Moche culture. Loma Negra works in metal share similar iconography with ceramics and metalwork found at Moche sites father to the south, such as Ucupe (Bourget, 2014). The exact relationship between the Loma Negra and the Moche “heartland” remains a subject of debate, however (Kaulicke, 2006).

References and further reading

Alva Meneses, Néstor Ignacio. “Spiders and Spider Decapitations in Moche Iconography: Identification from the Contexts of Sipán, Antecedents and Symbolism,” in The Art and Archeology of the Moche, edited by Steve Bourget and Kimberly L. Jones (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008), pp. 247-261.

Bourget, Steve. Les rois mochica: Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancient (Paris: Somogy éditions d'art; Geneva: MEG, Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, 2014).

Castillo, Luis Jaime. “Masters of the Universe: Moche Artists and Their Patrons,” in Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017), pp. 24-31.

Cory-Collins, Alana. “Archaism or Tradition? The Decapitation theme in Cupisnique and Early Moche Iconography,” Latin American Antiquity 3 (1992), pp. 207-219.

Donnan, Christopher B. “Moche State Religion,” in New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Luis Jaime Castillo (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2010), pp. 47-69.

Jones, Julie. "Mochica Works of Art in Metal: A Review," in Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1979), pp. 53-104.

Jones, Julie. “Innovation and Resplendence: Metalwork for Moche Lords,” in Moche Art and Archaeology in Ancient Peru, edited by Joanne Pillsbury; Studies in the History of Art 63. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers 15 (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2001), pp. 206-221.

Kaulicke, Peter. “The Vicús-Mochica Relationship,” in Andean Archaeology III, edited by William H. Isbell and Helene H. Silverman (Boston, MA: Springer, 2006), pp. 85-111.

Pillsbury, Joanne, “Vessel in the Shape of a Seated Figure,” and “Octopus Frontlet,” in Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017), pp. 156, 158.