Anthropo-zoomorphous breastplate

This figure from the Tairona Period on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is playing a trumpet. His cheeks appear to be puffed out, and his movements will have followed the cadence of the enormous feathered headdress he is wearing. There is also a bird on his head, with folded wings and the hooked beak of a scavenger like the condor from the Sierra Nevada or of a cormorant from the Caribbean Sea. In addition to a woven belt, bracelets and earrings, he is wearing two large metal tubes, which have been inserted into his nose. This feature is also seen on the "bat men", similar Tairona goldwork ornaments. This figure, however, is making music like a gracefully-flying bird. The object was cast in a gold and copper alloy and then surface-gilded with acids. On close examination it will be seen to be well used, as the thin gilded layer has been worn away by rubbing, and the pink colour of the object's inner metal can be seen on the protruding parts of the bird's beak, the trumpet and the feet. EL