from high status grave in the Lambayeque valley, Peru
000-100-104-663-C
© National Museums Scotland |
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Gold beaker
This gold beaker (coco) was found in a grave in the Lambayeque valley of Peru, in an area rich in high status burial mounds. It had been a funerary offering, and may have contained drink for the afterlife.
The beaker has been hammered up from a single sheet of gold, and is decorated with a hammered-up (repoussé) design, made using a mould, featuring three important people holding a spear and a trophy skull on a pole.
This is one of only a handful of gold beakers to have escaped the melting pot of the 16th century Spanish conquerors. It belongs to the Late Chimu period, just pre-Inca, when coastal North Peru was ruled by Chimu kings, based at Chanchan, near Trujillo.
Record details
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| Online ID: |
000-100-104-663-C |
| Image Rights Holder: |
National Museums Scotland |
| Project: |
0098: National Museums Scotland
Project description | View all records in project |
| Ref: |
National Museums Scotland A.1947.170 |
| Date: |
Around 15th century
c. 15th century
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| Material: |
15 carat gold. Inscription: Three warrior? figures wearing ornamental crown, vandyked tunic, large earplugs and holding a spear in the left hand and in the right a standard with toothed boss and crowned skull? above
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| Dimensions: |
Body 2.50" H; 1623 grains
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| What: |
Beaker
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| Subject: |
Metalwork
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| Who: |
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| Where: |
South America, Ancient Peru, Lambayeque, Tucume District, Illinco, La Merced
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| Event: |
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| Description: |
Seamless gold beaker decorated with a design in repoussé of three figures, possibly warriors: Ancient Peru, Lambayeque, Tucume district, from an ancient grave called La Merced, c. 15th century
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| References: |
- Aldred, C. A gold beaker from Peru. The Scottish Art Review, Vol 2. No. 2, 1947.
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| Translations: |
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