Pre-Columbian, Colombia, Tairona culture, ca. 1200 to 1500 CE. A beautiful tumbaga (alloy of copper and gold) ornament with a highly abstract zoomorphic design with tightly coiled swirling designs made of thin tumbaga wire and bulbous hollow half-spheres like eyes applied to a flat piece of the metal. There are three loops on the back for suspension. These disk-like designs are often seen on Tairona jewelry, and often are linked to birds, who seem to have been symbolically powerful (shamans are depicted in pottery transforming into birds, while feathered headdresses were signifiers of status). At the center of the pendant is another zoomorphic figure - this one with a diamond-shaped body, perhaps intended to be a frog. Spanish written sources from the contact period tell us that the Tairona had a stratified society; tumbaga pendants like this one were probably signs of rank. Size: 3.2" W x 3.55" H (8.1 cm x 9 cm); 4.5" H (11.4 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private Southern California, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s to mid-1980s

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#140900

One of the three loops on the back is partially lost. Small casting flaw on one of the spirals. With a pretty red/copper colored patina.