Crown with dangles

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 this large-scale crown, have more in common with works in metal from regions farther to the south. Large-scale, elaborate headdresses with dangling elements, for example, have been excavated at Moche sites such as Ucupe.

References and Further Reading

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.

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.

Vetter, Luisa. “El gran hallazgo de 1956 en Piura: Nuevas preguntas sobre la metalurgia de los Andes centrales.” In Los desafíos del tiempo, el espacio y la memoria. Ensayos en homenaje a Peter Kaulicke, edited by Rafael Vega Centeno and Jalh Dulanto, pp. 505–41. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2020.

Vetter, Luisa et al. “La técnica del cobre dorado en objetos de metal usados entre el 400 AC y el 450/500 DC en la Bahía de Huanchaco, costa norte del Perú.” Chungará 55 número 4 (2023): 681-701.