Cleveland Museum of Art

Disk-Shaped Chest Plaque

Date

c. 700–1550

Medium

hammered gold

Culture

Costa Rica or Panama

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Technologically, this pectoral (chest plaque) is unlike the other gold shown in this case. Rather than being cast of molten metal, it was made by hammering metal into a thin sheet. Costa Rican and Panamanian metalsmiths favored casting, but they were skilled in hammering, a technology better suited to creating large objects with glittering, reflective surfaces. The import of the breast-like protrusions is unknown.

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