adornment: The Americas Jadeite earspool; Maya culture, Guatemala, ca 550-ca 850 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Phil Berg Collection, Photograph © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA) Before Spanish colonization in South America, natives worked adeptly with gold Interestingly, gold was not an especially valuable material for native South Americans, though it was for the invading Spaniards in the 16th century The value of a given object instead would have been located in its symbolic meaning and the quality of its craftsmanship One of the most astonishing and rich discoveries of the 20th century was the tomb of an ancient ruler from Sipán The excavation revealed treasures of the Moche civilization, which inhabited the coastal plains of Peru from the first to the eighth centuries Like many such discoveries, the excavation of Sipán was initially jeopardized by widespread looting, though many of the stolen goods have since been recovered In the tomb archaeologists found many varieties of hollow beads that were made by soldering (joining with heat) two pieces of metal together The beads were produced in a variety of shapes and sizes One of the most impressive is nearly inches in diameter and depicts a human head, its eyes made of lapis lazuli (a blue stone that the Moche acquired from Chile) and silver The face has wide eyes; a broad nose; large, round ears; and carving that represents hair hanging over its forehead A pair of earplugs from Sipán is a typical example of the tomb’s riches and is similar in shape to modern-day cuff links A flat, oval gold base is inlaid with turquoise and shell The inlay is created of many very small pieces, which—like a mosaic—form the image of a zoomorphic figure with a bird’s head, running and holding an object Similar ear ornaments depict people, ducks, deer, and other figures Other objects found at Sipán were earrings; nose ornaments (for a pierced septum); a crown; masks; a headdress; bracelets; a painstakingly beaded pectoral made of white, pink, and green shell beads; a hammered, fitted gold plate that covered the wearer’s entire face below his nose (probably designed as a burial ornament only and not worn in life); bells; and other astonishingly beautiful objects It is important to remember that the treasures found at Sipán were meant for the wealthy and elite only; such a discovery gives us little understanding of everyday adornments worn by the nonelite Much later artisans from the Chimú Period (ca 11th– 13th centuries) made gold earspools similar to those found at Sipán These are round like coins and were created by hammering flat sheets of the metal The spools depict a figure with upraised arms, which is also bedecked in jewelry and a headdress as well as separate, dangling pieces that are attached on small rings Metalworkers from this period were skilled at creating such designs that had separate parts and that were made of a gold alloy; gold was mixed with other metals to increase its strength Since the Moche Period, South Americans had been mixing gold, silver, and copper, but they were skilled at making these alloys appear to be pure gold Most of the artifacts that have survived from the Caribbean islands are objects of ceremony or ritual, rather than articles of adornment However, from the Dominican Republic (on the island of Hispaniola) archaeologists have found a beaded necklace made of semiprecious stones The beads are still strung together, and they are fairly uniform and smooth The amulet represents a mythical, anthropomorphic creature Such ornament was added to daggers, scepters, or amulets carved of stone, shell, or jadeite In Taino societies in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas only the cacique, or ruler (and his wife or wives), wore jewelry Pre-Columbian Taino societies also adorned their skin with body paint, especially for religious ceremonies and battle They painted their bodies with ink made from plants and clay In addition, paint could be applied with a stamp From the Dominican Republic is such a ceramic stamp in the shape of a bearlike animal adorned with a geometric pattern Although stone, shell, and wood were the most popular materials used for much Taino craftsmanship, they were also skilled in beadwork A belt (ca 1530 c.e.) from the Greater Antilles is constructed from cotton, red and white snail shells, black seeds, pearls, glass, and obsidian The beadwork is geometric and precise In the center of the belt is a figure, which mostly consists of a simplified head with open mouth and teeth and wide eyes, flanked by earspools and hands