Cleveland Museum of Art

Forehead Ornament

Date

100 BCE–700 CE

Medium

hammered gold alloy

Culture

Peru, South Coast, Nasca

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Nasca figures, like one on a bowl nearby, are shown wearing such forehead ornaments and mouth masks similar to these. The mouth mask hung from the nasal septum, the oval opening surrounding the mouth and the bristles positioned as feline whiskers, here transformed to serpents. Both were cut from sheet gold; details were worked freehand while the sheet rested on a soft surface. Tumbaga is an alloy made by blending gold with copper, which may give the gold a rosy hue.

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