Pre-Columbian, Colombia, Tairona culture, ca. 800 to 1200 CE. A truly beautiful gold pendant, part of a group of hollow gold and tumbaga figures known as the caciques, chieftains, which are some of the most detailed gold castings known from the pre-Columbian world. The figure has a vaguely animalistic face (maybe bat-like?), with a wide, half-circle headdress; heavy necklace, belt, and armbands, and paw-like hands and feet; he also has a tiny phallus. It is not clear if these caciques figures are meant to be real individuals or supernatural ancestors; many of them, like this one, have transformative animal elements. The pre-Columbian Tairona, a group of chiefdoms in a mountainous part of Colombia, are renowned for their distinctive gold pieces - see, for example, the catalogue from the British Museum exhibit of Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia. Although gold was not a currency in pre-Columbian South America, it had great symbolic power, used by elites in life and in death to demonstrate their place in society. See a very similar example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Comes with custom stand. Weighs 20.3 grams. Size: 2" W x 2" H (5.1 cm x 5.1 cm)

Provenance: Ex - Private LA County collection

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#116468

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