Chimu-Chancay Copper-Silver Sewn Ornament, Crouching Figure

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Chimu or Chancay. A flat cutout ornament in a copper-silver alloy (88% copper and 10% silver, with a trace of gold). It shows a crouching figure in profile with its knees pulled tight to the chest, a pose read here as fetal. The head is a broad oval set with one large ringed eye. A curled crest or ear rises from the crown, and a flared, fan-shaped projection reaches forward, so the figure sits somewhere between human and animal. One arm bends upward toward the face, and a small triangular opening is cut out between the limbs. A border of punched dots runs around the body, and small piercings at the head, back, and foot let the plaque be stitched down. The figure was probably sewn to the clothing or headdress of a deceased person. Over the centuries the metal has weathered to a mottled green. On the Late Intermediate north and central coasts of Peru, sheet-metal cutouts like this one were sewn in rows onto tunics, mantles, and headdresses. The effect was a garment that shimmered and flashed in motion. Small plaques were cut from hammered sheet, edged with chased or punched dots, and pierced for thread. These metal-covered textiles turn up mostly in elite burials. Andean metalworkers valued alloys of copper with silver because they could make the surface look like pure silver. Repeated heating and pickling removed copper from the outer layer and left a thin silver-rich skin, a technique known as depletion silvering. The 88/10 copper-silver composition of this piece fits that tradition. Burial has since turned the copper-rich body green. Item # 205744

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