Beaker
Not on view
Unlike gold, which was available as nuggets and flakes in alluvial deposits and worked by metal artists of Peru’s North Coast since at least the first millennium BCE, working silver was a more complex process. Silver had to be sourced in veins in the highlands and then smelted (separated from other minerals) and refined. Chimú metalsmiths mastered the necessary technologies and brought silver working to new heights after 1000 CE. Silver was used to create items of personal adornment, but it was especially popular for drinking and serving vessels such as this tall flaring beaker. The only adornment on the otherwise plain vessel is a Spondylus shell worked in relief. Known as the “daughters of the sea, the mother of all waters,” Spondylus shells were highly valued in the ancient Andes, and closely associated with ideas of fertility and abundance (see also MMA 2003.169 and MMA 1991.419.62).
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