The figure has a fish-like body with downturned fanged mouth and a large lozenge-shaped eye. It stands in the profile position of a lesser deity. While fish-like figures or images are unusual in Chavín imagery, carvings of fish have been found on the roof of the Chamber of the Ornamental Beams in the New Temple at Chavín de Huántar. They were probably included to associate the subterranean gallery complexes of the temple with the underworld, as it is thought that ancient Peruvians saw bodies of water as entry points to the underworld.

The plaque, however, is likely to have come from the Lambayeque Valley, near the north Peruvian coast.¹ The spread of Chavín canons of art across Peru resulted in local variations on the style, as well as new subject matter. The proximity of Lambayeque settlements to northern coastal cultures, such as the Cupisnique, is likely to have led to the introduction of marine themes and motifs. The high relief of the plaque’s design closely resembles the linear design and structure of the Cupisnique ‘high-relief’ stirrup-spout vessels from the Jequetepeque Valley. These characteristics place the plaque within the Janabarriu Phase (400–200 BC), when the Chavín culture was absorbing and coalescing with the Cupisnique.

Many Chavín sheet-gold pieces are likely to have been costume elements sewn onto cloth or garments—here, the dangler has four perforations below the pendant figure’s chin, which enabled it to be secured to a costume. Or the plaque may have been part of a larger ritual or jewellery item, such as a pectoral, headdress or necklace.

The plaque was probably cut into shape with a sharp obsidian or stone chisel. The relief design was subsequently created through repoussé and embossing: the linear and lozenge elements were pressed from behind and from the front, causing the relief and intaglio elements to contrast abruptly in angularity and depth. The perforations for the danglers would have been stamped into the metal, again using a sharp stone point.

Such gold pieces, being highly visible items of personal adornment, signified status and wealth. Only small quantities of hammered sheet-gold pieces from the Initial Period (1800–900 BC) have been found. The increasing occurrence of high value accoutrements in the Early Horizon Period (900 BC–200 AD) has been attributed to the growth in social stratification during these centuries. This was probably due in part to expanding exchange networks controlled by the elite, which in turn led to the diffusion of Chavín cult imagery throughout Peru.

Andrew Fyfe

1. This plaque was probably discovered as part of a hoard near the town of Chongoyape, Peru, c. 1928–29; it was in the André Emmerich Gallery, New York, by 1965; 
from whom it was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1978.

The figure has a fish-like body with downturned fanged mouth and a large lozenge-shaped eye. It stands in the profile position of a lesser deity. While fish-like figures or images are unusual in Chavín imagery, carvings of fish have been found on the roof of the Chamber of the Ornamental Beams in the New Temple at Chavín de Huántar. They were probably included to associate the subterranean gallery complexes of the temple with the underworld, as it is thought that ancient Peruvians saw bodies of water as entry points to the underworld.

The plaque, however, is likely to have come from the Lambayeque Valley, near the north Peruvian coast.¹ The spread of Chavín canons of art across Peru resulted in local variations on the style, as well as new subject matter. The proximity of Lambayeque settlements to northern coastal cultures, such as the Cupisnique, is likely to have led to the introduction of marine themes and motifs. The high relief of the plaque’s design closely resembles the linear design and structure of the Cupisnique ‘high-relief’ stirrup-spout vessels from the Jequetepeque Valley. These characteristics place the plaque within the Janabarriu Phase (400–200 BC), when the Chavín culture was absorbing and coalescing with the Cupisnique.

Many Chavín sheet-gold pieces are likely to have been costume elements sewn onto cloth or garments—here, the dangler has four perforations below the pendant figure’s chin, which enabled it to be secured to a costume. Or the plaque may have been part of a larger ritual or jewellery item, such as a pectoral, headdress or necklace.

The plaque was probably cut into shape with a sharp obsidian or stone chisel. The relief design was subsequently created through repoussé and embossing: the linear and lozenge elements were pressed from behind and from the front, causing the relief and intaglio elements to contrast abruptly in angularity and depth. The perforations for the danglers would have been stamped into the metal, again using a sharp stone point.

Such gold pieces, being highly visible items of personal adornment, signified status and wealth. Only small quantities of hammered sheet-gold pieces from the Initial Period (1800–900 BC) have been found. The increasing occurrence of high value accoutrements in the Early Horizon Period (900 BC–200 AD) has been attributed to the growth in social stratification during these centuries. This was probably due in part to expanding exchange networks controlled by the elite, which in turn led to the diffusion of Chavín cult imagery throughout Peru.

Andrew Fyfe

1. This plaque was probably discovered as part of a hoard near the town of Chongoyape, Peru, c. 1928–29; it was in the André Emmerich Gallery, New York, by 1965; 
from whom it was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1978.