Pectoral
Not on view
Coastal Piura, near the modern Peruvian border with Ecuador, was home to the Vicús society. There, accomplished metalsmiths excelled at creating ornaments using the repoussé technique, where a hammered metal sheet is cut and worked from behind to achieve raised designs, often featuring felines and birds (see, for example, MMA 1991.419.50). Other works, such as the present example, appear unadorned. This pectoral, wide at top and tapering to a rounded bottom, has three perforations at the semi-circular cut out top, perhaps for the suspension of other ornaments. The upper left and right corners were folded over in antiquity.
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