Nose Ornament 1–1000 Zenú This metal nose ornament was created by Zenú metalworkers in the Caribbean Lowlands of Colombia through lost-wax casting, without a core, followed by hammering. (For more information on lost-wax casting, please see Metropolitan Museum of Art , b). The ornament consists of gold or an alloy of gold with copper. Some ceramic figurines show a person wearing a similar ornament by passing the central loop through the septum of their nose.[1] It is uncertain whether this could have been accomplished with a metal ornament such as the present example. The enti

Nose Ornament 1–1000 Zenú This metal nose ornament was created by Zenú metalworkers in the Caribbean Lowlands of Colombia through lost-wax casting, without a core, followed by hammering. (For more information on lost-wax casting, please see Metropolitan Museum of Art , b). The ornament consists of gold or an alloy of gold with copper. Some ceramic figurines show a person wearing a similar ornament by passing the central loop through the septum of their nose.[1] It is uncertain whether this could have been accomplished with a metal ornament such as the present example. The entire ornament was first designed in wax and then cast as one piece. The metalworkers formed the two horizontal extensions out of sheets of wax and attached a solid semi-circular loop of wax to bridge these extensions, applying light pressure and/or heat to blend the wax of the loop on to the extensions. This blending is especially visible on the reverse of the ornament. The artists created the design seen on either side of the ornament’s central opening by alternating three columns of a braided design with two plain vertical bands. They formed each braided design by plaiting four wax threads. The direction of the plaiting, appearing as chevrons in each column, is the same across all six columns: all point downward. Joining the braided designs and the plain bands to form two separate blocks, the metalworkers then attached this combined design to the surface of the extensions on each side of the opening. They made separate blocks of this braided design, each consisting of two columns of four plaited threads, and attached them at the opposite ends of the extensions. The chevrons that appear on these blocks all point upward. The semicircular ends of the ornament also were designed in wax and cast with the rest of the object. These ends consist of a plain semicircular area, which is bordered by nine open circles on the proper left and ten open circles on the proper right.[2] The

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