Nose Ornament 1–1000 Zenú This solid metal nose ornament was fabricated through a combination of lost-wax casting and hammering. It is made of gold, or more likely, an alloy of gold with copper. There are some archaeological ceramic figurines that show a person wearing a similar nose ornament by passing the central, semicircular loop through the septum, but it is uncertain whether this could be accomplished with a metal version, like the present example.[1] A possible alternative is that a person would have fit the opening at the center of the ornament over their nose and then slid the ob

Nose Ornament 1–1000 Zenú This solid metal nose ornament was fabricated through a combination of lost-wax casting and hammering. It is made of gold, or more likely, an alloy of gold with copper. There are some archaeological ceramic figurines that show a person wearing a similar nose ornament by passing the central, semicircular loop through the septum, but it is uncertain whether this could be accomplished with a metal version, like the present example.[1] A possible alternative is that a person would have fit the opening at the center of the ornament over their nose and then slid the object down in order to fasten the object tightly, the long edges of the metal pressing into their nostrils. This ornament is part of the metalwork produced by the Zenú people who lived and currently live in the Caribbean Lowlands of Colombia. The object belongs to the group, “nose ornaments with horizontal extensions” or “narigueras con prolongaciones horizontales,” as defined by Ana María Falchetti (1995, 72-83).All of the details of the object would have been designed in wax, by molding the wax or incising the wax, as the model was being constructed as part of the lost wax process (please see Metropolitan Museum of Art , b for a more detailed discussion of lost wax casting). It is presumed that the entire ornament was cast as one piece and after casting some areas were hammered to further shape opening at the ornament’s center is topped by a thick, hemispherical loop ( mm in thickness), which shows two hemispherical bands that wrap around its lower extremities. These bands are not visible on the reverse of the object. Interestingly, the loop itself resembles another form of Zenú object, the “nose ornaments in the form of an ‘n’” (“narigueras en forma de ‘n’”) according to the system of Falchetti (1995, 152, fig. 71). Metropolitan Museum of Art and are examples of this form. The interior edges of

How we Work

Contribute

Legal

Contact Us