Electrochemical replacement gilding
Dorado electroquímico por reemplazo
- Date
- c. 200 CE · confidence medium
- Place
- Loma Negra, Chulucanas, Piura, Peru
- Credited to
- Moche culture
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Copper sheets coated with a layer of gold 0.5 to 2 microns thick by dissolving gold in a corrosive solution of mineral salts and depositing it onto the copper without an external current. It is a chemical plating method with no ancient parallel in the Old World.
Experimentally reconstructed by Lechtman (1982). The exact recipe is hypothetical.
What it led to
- copper objects with the appearance of gold
- the modern study of pre-Columbian chemistry