Pre-Columbian Copper Artifacts

Pre-Columbian Jewelry

and metalwork

GOLD - fiery metal esteemed by the Incas, Sinu, and other South American tribes for its beauty and sought by the Spaniards for its worth. Exciting the greed of conquistadors, it brought entire cultures to ruin. To the Incas, gold was "the sweat of the sun", who, they believed, had entrusted them with its safe keeping. By law, all the gold and silver belonged to the emperor, who used it to bedeck his palace, beautify temples, and reward loyalty. Most gold came from the mountain rivers - Incas smelted the ore with charcoal and bellows. They learned much of the craft from artisans of the Chimu Kingdom in Peru. The Sinu tribe was located in what is now Colombia and were artisans noted for fine gold jewelry.

Because the Spaniards reduced such works of art into ingots for easy transport and exchange, gold jewelry has always been exceedingly rare. This gold Sinu nose-ring jewelry was likely on it’s way to being melted down. The piece was salvaged off the coast of Panama from a sunken vessel presumably heading back to Spain in 1543. It was part of the Joseph Petrocelli collection who discovered it diving while on leave as a Green Beret in 1969.

The Inca, sometimes called “peoples of the sun,” were originally a warlike tribe living in a semi-arid region of the southern Sierra. From 1100 A.D. to 1300 A.D. the Inca moved north into the fertile Cuzco Valley. From this base they subsequently overran the neighboring lands. By 1500 the empire of the Inca stretched from the Pacific Ocean east to the sources of the Paraguay and Amazon rivers and from the region of modern Quito in Ecuador south to the Maule River in Chile. This vast empire was a theocracy, organized along socialistic lines and ruled by an Inca, or emperor, who was worshiped as a divinity. Because the Inca realm contained extensive deposits of gold and silver, it became, in the early 16th century, a natural target of Spanish Imperial ambitions in the New World.

C opper topu, or shawl pin with the stylized head of a bird - most likely a sea gull. It is well preserved with a rich green patina. From the Chimu culture of Peru 1000 - 1300 A.D.; 17.5 cm. long.

This ring is of thin copper with one side very delicate and should definitely be handled with care. The patina is a rich green and the ring comes on a display stand. From Peru 1200 - 1400 A.D.; 4 cm. high x 2.8 cm. wide