Ornament

Prestige was conveyed not only through finely woven textiles, such as tunics, mantles, and headdresses, but also through facial and bodily ornaments. In particular, ear ornaments were common status markers in the Andes for over 3,000 years. Nose ornaments were also popular from the Early Horizon (900-200 B.C.E.), varying in size and elaboration. This elaborate silver object with an excised figural scene may have once served as a nose or headdress ornament.

**Adapted from**

Kimberly L. Jones, PhD, _Inca: Conquests of the Andes / Los Incas y las conquistas de los Andes_, Label text [1983.W.991; 1983.W.992; 1976.W.997; 1976.W.1000.a–b], 2015.