Tumi (Andean crescent knife)
Tumi (cuchillo de media luna andino)
- Date
- c. 300 BCE-1470 CE · confidence low
- Place
- Moche Valley, La Libertad, Peru
- Credited to
- Moche, Lambayeque and Chimú cultures
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A metal knife with a semicircular blade and a vertical handle, made in copper, bronze or gold-copper alloy. It was used for cutting and ritual offerings, and appears in Moche and Chimú tombs and in cranial surgery such as trepanation.
The ceremonial tumi is well known, but its origin and exact use, domestic, surgical or ritual, are debated, and the gold examples are mostly ceremonial. The range covers the Moche to Chimú cultures.
What it led to
- trepanation surgery and ritual sacrifice in the Andes
- ceremonial metalwork of the northern Peruvian coast cultures
- an emblem of Andean culture today