Textile ornament

Ornaments made of hammered gold sheet or other materials were sometimes sewn to woven garments, creating a dazzling effect when catching the light and animated by the wearers’ movements. Nasca metalsmiths of Peru’s South Coast created this star-shaped ornament, one of at least nine that may have been affixed to an impressive tunic or other element of attire (see MMA 1979.206.754-.762). Each ornament has two pairs of perforations on opposite sides, allowing for attachment to a textile (a figure on a Nasca bottle, MMA 64.228.66, is likely wearing such a garment).

The ornaments’ shape resembles sections of San Pedro cacti (also known as wachuma), a sacred plant used in shamanic rituals in the Andes. The sections’ lobes feature eyes and tongues rendered in repoussé (worked from behind), perhaps references to toads, an animal associated with water, an important resource in the desert environment of the South Coast.

References and Further Reading

Pardo, Cecilia, and Peter Fux. Nasca. Lima: Museo de Arte Lima, 2017.

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

Proulx, Donald A. “Paracas and Nasca: Regional Cultures on the South Coast of Peru” in The Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by H. Silverman and W. H. Isbell, pp. 563-585. New York: Springer, 2008.