Cutout Disk

This gilded copper disk features a silhouette of a supernatural quadruped standing on a crescent shape. Made by artisans of the Moche culture of Peru’s North Coast, the figure has a long serrated tail, a tongue emanating from a fanged mouth, a curved element under the chin, and a serrated crescent above the head, echoing the shape of the tail. The horizontal position of the ear adds a sense of both forward movement and aggression to the figure. The jagged tail and crescent are characteristic features of a creature referred to as a Crescent Animal or Moon Animal, a supernatural being with elements of different animals, including canines and felines (Mackey and Vogel, 2003).

The sophisticated use of gilded copper, and the understanding of the complex processes needed to achieve this effect, are hallmarks of Moche metalworking, perhaps the most advanced in all of the ancient Americas. The metalsmith skillfully removed the metal sheet around the figure, leaving multiple points of contact to the circumference of the disk to support and fix the figure in position. Gilded copper dangles were affixed to the disk by thin wires, and would have created a lively visual and aural effect when the disk was moved.

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 200-850 AD, 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 unknown, 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 precise relationship between the Loma Negra and the Moche “heartland” remains a subject of debate, however (Kaulicke, 2006).

References and further reading

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.

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.

Lechtman, Heather, Antonieta Erling, and Edward J. Barry Jr. “New Perspectives on Moche Metallurgy: Techniques of Gilding Copper at Loma Negra, Northern Peru,” American Antiquity vol. 47 (1982), pp. 3–30.

Mackey, Carol J. and Melissa Vogel. “La luna sobre los Andes: Una revisión del Animal Lunar,” in Moche: Hacia el final del milenio, edited by Santiago Uceda and Elías Mujica (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2003), pp. 325–342.

Pillsbury, Joanne, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter, editors. Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017). (See especially p. 155, cat. no. 41.)