Birds were a favourite subject for Inca artists, just as they were for all the Peruvian cultures that preceded them. Their characteristics and qualities were observed and changed to suit the purpose for which the artefacts were to be used. The bird with the long bill, probably a snipe, was fashioned to decorate something, perhaps as a finial for a staff or implement. Because so few Incan works of precious metal escaped the invaders’ grasp, normal comparisons of types of objects are difficult. Luisa María Vetter Parodi notes that this figurine, made by moulding, was excavated from the Rinconada Inca necropolis at La Molina, Lima.¹

A more complex manufacturing technique was used for the bird cup, also of silver. The metal was rolled, hammered, drawn and soldered.² The awkward upturned head and curved neck evoke the movement of a bird drinking, very appropriate for a vessel probably made for libations or rituals using liquids. The other handle is a short, fan-shaped tail.

Like many empire-builders, the Incans adapted or subsumed the technological strengths of the societies they vanquished. The new rulers:

sensed the potential in the metalwork activity of the groups they conquered, and they standardised their artisanal production as a form of control. Thus, after they conquered the Chimor territory, they moved groups of goldsmiths from Chan Chan to Cusco to satisfy the demands of a new dominant nobility.³

Christine Dixon

1. In Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), Inca: Origins and mysteries of the civilisation of gold, Venice: Marsilio 2010, cat. 38, p. 218.

2. Luisa María Vetter Parodi in Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), cat. 156, p. 225.

3. María Inés Velarde and Pamela Castro de la Mata, ‘The ideology and technology of metals in ancient, pre-Incan Peru’, in Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), p. 47, citing Karen O’Day, ‘The goldwork of Chimor: the technology and iconography of wealth accumulation’, in Colin McEwan (ed.), Precolumbian gold: Technology, style an iconography, London: British Museum 2000, pp. 62–75.

Birds were a favourite subject for Inca artists, just as they were for all the Peruvian cultures that preceded them. Their characteristics and qualities were observed and changed to suit the purpose for which the artefacts were to be used. The bird with the long bill, probably a snipe, was fashioned to decorate something, perhaps as a finial for a staff or implement. Because so few Incan works of precious metal escaped the invaders’ grasp, normal comparisons of types of objects are difficult. Luisa María Vetter Parodi notes that this figurine, made by moulding, was excavated from the Rinconada Inca necropolis at La Molina, Lima.¹

A more complex manufacturing technique was used for the bird cup, also of silver. The metal was rolled, hammered, drawn and soldered.² The awkward upturned head and curved neck evoke the movement of a bird drinking, very appropriate for a vessel probably made for libations or rituals using liquids. The other handle is a short, fan-shaped tail.

Like many empire-builders, the Incans adapted or subsumed the technological strengths of the societies they vanquished. The new rulers:

sensed the potential in the metalwork activity of the groups they conquered, and they standardised their artisanal production as a form of control. Thus, after they conquered the Chimor territory, they moved groups of goldsmiths from Chan Chan to Cusco to satisfy the demands of a new dominant nobility.³

Christine Dixon

1. In Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), Inca: Origins and mysteries of the civilisation of gold, Venice: Marsilio 2010, cat. 38, p. 218.

2. Luisa María Vetter Parodi in Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), cat. 156, p. 225.

3. María Inés Velarde and Pamela Castro de la Mata, ‘The ideology and technology of metals in ancient, pre-Incan Peru’, in Carcedo de Mufarech (ed.), p. 47, citing Karen O’Day, ‘The goldwork of Chimor: the technology and iconography of wealth accumulation’, in Colin McEwan (ed.), Precolumbian gold: Technology, style an iconography, London: British Museum 2000, pp. 62–75.