Necklace beads with frogs and snakes

Necklaces of composed of large gold or silver beads were objects of prestige and power in ancient Peru and have been found in multiple elite Moche burials (Bourget, 2014; Alva and Donnan, 1993; Donnan, 2022). These nine beads, said to have been found with a second set of beads (1974.271.31), formed a necklace for a high-ranking individual. Each bead was made from two pieces cut from hammered sheet gold; the front half was worked from behind (repoussé) to create an image of a frog or toad flanked by snakes. Both the snakes and the frogs likely once held inlays, as suggested by the depressions on their bodies. (The blue inlays on one bead are likely modern replacements.) The back halves of the beads are plain. Before the two halves were soldered together, small pellets were placed in the beads so they would rattle when the wearer moved, adding another sensorial dimension to the beads.

Moche necklace beads were generally between 3 and 8 cm in diameter, although other beads as large as 12 cm have been described (Alva and Donnan; 1993; Bourget, 2014; Donnan, 2022). High ranking individuals were usually buried with multiple necklaces composed of beads of various dimensions, the outer strand having larger size beads. Beads with images of warriors, spiders, snails, frogs, felines, peanuts, owl and monkey heads, as well as geometrical forms have been found in both gold and silver, and sometimes with combinations of the two metals. The large beads in Moche necklaces usually did not extend to the nape, as depicted on their ceramics and inferred by the numbers of necklace beads excavated in burials.

The Moche (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from 200-850 CE, centuries before the rise of the Incas (Castillo, 2017). Over the course of some seven 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 it is not certain whether the Moche formed a single centralized state, they shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

References and Further Reading

Alva, Walter, and Christopher B. Donnan. Royal Tombs of Sipán. Los Angels: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1993.

Bourget, Steve. Les rois mochica: Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancien. 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, pp. 24-31. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.

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

Donnan, Christopher A. La Mina: A Royal Moche Tomb. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2022.