PRE-COLUMBIAN GOLD

I find these pieces of Pre-Columbian gold jewellery tremendously inspiring. So, of course, did Columbus and all those subsequent Conquistadors when they saw things like them gleaming on the bare or red-painted skin of the ‘Indians’ they found living in what they claimed as the ‘New Spain.’ The search for Eldorado, the extermination of most of the native populations through slavery, murder, and disease: they’re familiar and unhappy stories. What remain are the incredible gold ornaments like these ones now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Above are Tolima pendants made around 800; below, two Calima Yotoco headdress ornaments and a pectoral, all from what is now Colombia.

Above, two pendants from Veraguas, Panama, c. 1400, the lower one an eagle, above it a shamanistic figure with a crocodile mask; above right and below left, frog pendants from the Chiriqui, Costa Rica; below right, a nose ornament from Calima Yotoco; bottom, a turtle pendant, again Veraguas. All of these cultures had elements of animal-spirit-worship and all these objects had ritual significance for their makers and wearers. Personally, I love their strong, graphic forms, their simple curves and abstracted, bold animal and human shapes; and the simplicity of their making, beaten gold sheets, or castings with a pitted, soft surface.