Colombian Prehispanic Goldwork
Colombia, located in the north of South America, is washed by the
Atlantic Ocean to the north and by the Pacific to the west. Like a spinal
column, the chain of the Andes stretches up from the south of the continent,
forming three fertile branches with countless valleys, plateaus and hillsides
inhabited by the majority of the present-day population.
In ancient times this land was occupied by societies governed by chiefs. Gold, the sacred metal, adorned the political leaders and was used as offerings to the gods.
In the southwest of Colombia, the cultures which archaeologists
call Tumaco, Calima,
Malagana, Cauca, San
Agustín, Tierradentro, Nariño,
Quimbaya and Tolima,
were the first to work the metal they found in the rivers.
Around the beginning of our era these peoples lived in villages surrounded
by fields. Trade and exchange routes ensured that ideas and news travelled
from one region to another. However, the zenith of the southwestern cultures
declined around AD 1000 and the territory was taken over by more populous
egalitarian societies. When the European conquistadores arrived in 1500,
goldwork was characteristic of the cultures to the north: Sinú,
Urabá, Tairona,
Muisca. Their styles, while distinct from one
another, shared a preference for casting in tumbaga, an alloy of gold and
copper.
Gold objects accompanied the dead in their tombs, and today bear witness,
in the Museum, to the spirit of the people who created them.
