Andean hammered-gold metalwork
Orfebrería andina del oro martillado
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Jiskairumoko, Ilave, Puno, Peru
- Credited to
- Terminal Archaic peoples of Lake Titicaca
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A necklace of nine beads of cold-hammered native gold found in a burial, the oldest gold object in the Americas. It marks the start of the Andean metallurgical tradition, independent of that of the Old World.
Aldenderfer et al. (PNAS, 2008).
What it led to
- metal as a marker of prestige in the Andes
- Chavín, Moche and Muisca goldwork