Necklace with conical beads

Necklaces of large, hollow, gold, silver, or gilded copper beads, a sign of prestige, often accompanied Moche high-status individuals in their burials. Strands of beads consisting of 10 large, or sometimes 20 smaller beads were typical. In some burials, multiple necklaces were found; usually the beads with the larger diameter formed the outermost strand. Beads were shaped in the form of supernatural beings’ heads, as well as more human-looking heads. Beads in the shape of animals, plants, insects, and geometric forms are also known. Spherical or rounded beads are the most common shape, and these were made from two pieces of hammered metal sheet cut and shaped into hemispheres (sometimes with repoussé designs) and then soldered together (see, for example, MMA 1974.271.32 and 1974.271.31). Each bead would be perforated twice on each side, to allow them to be double strung, so they would rest securely on the chest. Many contain small metal pellets that would rattle when the beads move, adding an additional sensorial dimension to the experience of these impressive collars.

The present group consists of 60 beads, similarly shaped, but created four sizes: 7 large (each about 7 cm in diameter), 30 medium (about 4 cm in diameter), 11 small (about 2.5 cm in diameter) and 12 extra-small (a bit less that 2 cm in diameter). Unlike the impressive beads excavated by Walter Alva and his team at Sipán, on Peru’s North Coast, these 60 beads were acquired via the art market in the 1950s, so their original configuration is unknown. In the middle of the 20th century, all 60 beads were mounted together in one necklace of two strands, in a graduated design, with the smallest beads nearest the clasp and the largest at the center. Following patterns revealed by Alva (2001), Alva and Donnan (1993), Bourget (2014), and Donnan (2022, 2012), based on their scientific excavations of high-status Moche tombs, however, it seems likely that this group of 60 beads once constituted several, rather than a single necklace. Although it is impossible to reconstruct their original layout, the present photograph follows a Moche preference for stringing beads of the same size on one strand, possibly next to other strands of beads, placing the largest beads on the outermost strand. Again, following patterns seen in the archaeological record, the necklaces likely did not extend to the nape, or back of the neck.

Each bead in this group has a lenticular shape with one plain side and one side with a conical protrusion, perhaps representing a lucuma fruit, known for its sweet, bright yellow flesh. Moche artists also created ceramic vessels in the shape of lucuma fruit, often clustered in threes or fours (see, for example, a bottle in the collection of the Museo Larco in Lima, accession number ML006628). In the absence of texts from this period (there was no tradition of writing in the Andes prior to the 16th century), it is difficult to determine with precision what the symbolic association may have been, although a connection with an idea of enduring abundance was surely a consideration. Two beads of a similar shape and size of the medium-scale beads are reported to have come from the site of Sipán in Lambayeque, prior to the initiation of Walter Alva’s scientific excavations there in 1987 (Alva, 2001:233; see also Bonavia 1994:145, fig. 111).

The Moche (also known as the Mochica) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from 200-850 CE, centuries before the rise of the Incas. Over the course of some seven centuries, the Moche transformed the strip of desert between the Pacific Ocean and the Andean highlands into thriving regional centers from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to as far north as the Piura River, near the modern border with Ecuador. They developed the coastal deserts into rich farmlands through the invention and expansion of complex irrigation systems and drew upon the abundant maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean’s Humboldt Current. Monumental buildings, made of mudbrick, were the center of Moche ceremonial life and were built in each valley. These centers were often hubs for craft production, places where Moche artists technologically and aesthetically achieved new heights. Although the precise nature of Moche political organization is unknown, these centers shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

Joanne Pillsbury

Andrall E. Pearson Curator, Arts of the Ancient Americas, 2026



References and Further Reading

Alva, Walter, ed. Gold aus dem alten Peru: die Königsgräber von Sipán. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2001.

Alva, Walter, and Christopher B. Donnan. Royal Tombs of Sipán. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Culture History, 1993.

Bonavia, Duccio. Arte e historia del Perú antiguo: Colección Enrico Poli. Arequipa, Peru: Banco del Sur, 1994.

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.

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

Donnan, Christopher B. "Dressing the Body in Splendor: Expression of Value by the Moche of Ancient Peru." In The Construction of Value in the Ancient World, edited by John K. Papadopoulos and Gary Urton, pp. 186-196. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2012.

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 B. Moche Art of Peru: Pre-Columbian Symbolic Communication. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, 1978.

Mujica Barreda, Elías. El Brujo: Huaca Cao, centro ceremonial Moche en el valle de Chicama/Huaca Cao, a Moche Ceremonial Center in the Chicama Valley. Lima: Fundación Wiese, 2007.

Pillsbury, Joanne, Timothy Potts, and Kim N. Richter. Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.