Nose ornament with spiders

This gold and silver nose ornament was expertly crafted by Moche metalsmiths on Peru’s North Coast centuries before the rise of the Inca. The six spiders, originally with shell inlays in their eyes and stone inlays in their abdomens, were soldered to a silver backing and arranged on a gold rectilinear grid that may represent a web. Along the grid, 44 gold dangles were suspended from thin gold loops. Behind the upper part of the silver backing there is evidence of a second silver sheet that features an oval-shaped perforation and long curved tabs which fold over and overlap in back leaving a small opening to attach to the nasal septum. (For an image of what the missing region looked like, see MMA 1979.206.1228.)

The significance of spiders in Moche art is unclear, but the way spiders trap their prey in a web may have been considered analogous to Moche hunting their quarry with nets as well as the practice of prisoner capture and sacrifice by bloodletting (Alva, 2008; Cordy-Collins, 1992). Alternatively, spiders capture dew in their webs and their proliferation is promoted during the wet season. Thus, spider imagery may relate to water and seasonal change (Alva, 2008). Alva and Nestor (2008) have argued, based upon physical attributes as well as web shape, that the spider represented is Argiope argentata, which is common on the Peruvian coast.

The Moche culture (also known as the Mochicas) flourished on Peru’s North Coast from 200-900 CE (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 the exact nature of Moche political organization is a subject of scholarly debate—some believe it was a single, unified state, others suggest there were multiple polities—it is clear they shared unifying cultural traits such as religious practices (Donnan, 2010).

This object was said to have been found near the site or sites known as Loma Negra, near Piura, which was the most northern outpost of Moche culture. Loma Negra works in metal share similar iconography with ceramics and metalwork found at Moche sites farther to the south, such as Úcupe (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

Alva Meneses, Néstor Ignacio. “Spiders and Spider Decapitations in Moche Iconography: Identification from the Contexts of Sipán, Antecedents and Symbolism.” In The Art and Archeology of the Moche, edited by Steve Bourget and Kimberly L. Jones, pp. 247-261. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.

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, pp. 24-31. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.

Cordy-Collins, Alana. “Archaism or Tradition? The Decapitation theme in Cupisnique and Early Moche Iconography.” Latin American Antiquity 3, (1992), pp. 207-219.

Disselhoff, Hans-Dietrich. "Metallschmuck aus der Loma Negra, Vicus (Nord-Peru)." Antike Welt vol. 3 (1972), pp. 43–53.

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.

Jones, Julie. "Mochica Works of Art in Metal: A Review." In Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 53-104. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1979.

Kaulicke, Peter. “The Vicús-Mochica Relationship.” In Andean Archaeology III, edited by William H. Isbell and Helene H. Silverman, pp. 85-111. Boston: Springer, 2006.

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.

Ríos, Marcela and Enrique Retamozo. “Investigaciones sobre la metalurgia Vicús.” Gaceta Arqueologica Andina VII, no. 23 (1993), pp. 33-66.

Schorsch, Deborah. "Silver-and-Gold Moche Artifacts from Loma Negra, Peru." Metropolitan Museum Journal vol. 33 (1998).