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Mochica Gold Miniatures

Room 12, Vitrine 148


Metal
Peruvian Northern Coast
Florescent Epoch (1 AD – 800 AD)
ML100007, ML100008, ML100009, ML100040, ML100041, ML100045, ML100068, ML100069, ML100070, ML100165, ML100727, ML100846, ML100847.

The adornments and flaps on the clothing of high-ranking individuals were decorated with people, animals and fruit with important symbolic connotations.

  1. Ulluchu, a fruit associated with sacrifices and fertility.
  2. Peanuts are one of the Andean region’s most ancient crops, and they have long been associated with fertility.
  3. The crab appears in Mochica mythology as a being which facilitates contact between the sea and the rocky coastline, and which interacts with the gods who journey between different worlds.
  4. The toad is associated with the watery world of lakes and the lomas, the low-lying hills of the Peruvian coast where vegetation thrives in the humid coastal fog while the valleys experience their dry season.
  5. A mutilated individual with no feet who appears guarding the tombs of ancestors in funerary scenes depicted in Mochica iconography.
  6. Bird warriors carrying clubs. In Mochica mythology these individuals accompanied the principal deities during ceremonies and sacrifices.
  7. Bead from a necklace depicting a fox, which according to Andean beliefs was said, by virtue of its two-colored tail, to act as an intermediary between the wet and dry worlds.
  8. Gold sculpture of a jaguar, a sacred animal in ancient Peru.
  9. A man inside the body of a feline in an illustration of the transformation from human to jaguar.
  10. A man-drum with drooping ears and symbols representing the Andean cross, or “chacana”.