The gold ornaments that have thus far been
retrieved from the Calima region include
unidentifiable male figures wearing enormous
nose rings. This fantastic pendant shows such a
personage who is probably a great shaman
dressed in ritual costume. He wears a circular
shaped headdress, like a crown, with studs on
the lower portion and flared rim on the upper
section pierced with a series of hales. His coil
shaped earrings are almost hidden by the nose
ring, which flares outwards like tongues of fire
stretching behind his head. It then continues
down in three separate sections, acting as a sort
of ornamental breastplate. In both hands he
holds staffs or scepters, bath encircled with two
double-banded rings. He seems also to be
wearing an actual breastplate with a horizontal
bar extension half covering his pubic region. This
pendant may represent the very person who wore
the pendant, seen in his ritual regalia. If this were
true the individual would have been covered in
gold items. With this pendant we become
privileged viewers of a fantastic ceremony, a
remarkable moment in time held forever in gold
where bath ornament and wearer are equally
resplendent.
- (FJ.6235)
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