Three pairs of circular ear ornaments reveal the variety of techniques and aesthetic choices made in the creation of jewellery for the ruling elite during the Middle Sicán period, about 900 to 1100 AD. The prevailing circular gold shapes probably referred to the sun. The size of the fastening stems show how big the ear-piercing holes became after the wearer continually bore the weight of the ear pieces.

The gold discs with blue stone inlaid into the centre have repeated circular design elements: a wide contoured border is separated from the neighbouring band, which is edged with granulated gold balls and bears six zoomorphic figures. They rotate around the central band with balls and inlay, and have a similar format to another pair of ear ornaments that are part of a complete parure (cat. 117). This technological virtuosity contrasts with the pair of plain gold ear ornaments showing the vicissitudes of time. Each circle has five parallel bands, two with rows of small balls, and a hollow centre that has probably lost its stone or shell inlay.

Large and incomplete triangular (or trapezoidal) pendants hang from discs with hanging cut-out circles, each pendant suspending its own rounded danglers. The ear ornaments were part of the find discovered and excavated in 1992 by the Proyecto Arqueológico Sicán of the eastern tomb at Huaca Loro, or Oro, at the Santuario Histórico de Pómac.¹

Christine Dixon

1. Luisa María Vetter Parodi, cats 259 and 260, in Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.),
Inca: Origins and mysteries of the civilisation of gold, Venice: Marsilio 20010, p. 233.

Three pairs of circular ear ornaments reveal the variety of techniques and aesthetic choices made in the creation of jewellery for the ruling elite during the Middle Sicán period, about 900 to 1100 AD. The prevailing circular gold shapes probably referred to the sun. The size of the fastening stems show how big the ear-piercing holes became after the wearer continually bore the weight of the ear pieces.

The gold discs with blue stone inlaid into the centre have repeated circular design elements: a wide contoured border is separated from the neighbouring band, which is edged with granulated gold balls and bears six zoomorphic figures. They rotate around the central band with balls and inlay, and have a similar format to another pair of ear ornaments that are part of a complete parure (cat. 117). This technological virtuosity contrasts with the pair of plain gold ear ornaments showing the vicissitudes of time. Each circle has five parallel bands, two with rows of small balls, and a hollow centre that has probably lost its stone or shell inlay.

Large and incomplete triangular (or trapezoidal) pendants hang from discs with hanging cut-out circles, each pendant suspending its own rounded danglers. The ear ornaments were part of the find discovered and excavated in 1992 by the Proyecto Arqueológico Sicán of the eastern tomb at Huaca Loro, or Oro, at the Santuario Histórico de Pómac.¹

Christine Dixon

1. Luisa María Vetter Parodi, cats 259 and 260, in Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.),
Inca: Origins and mysteries of the civilisation of gold, Venice: Marsilio 20010, p. 233.