Tumi (Ceremonial knife)

Tumi are ceremonial knives that were fabricated by various cultures in the Andes region until the fifteenth 15thcentury. They were made of copper, bronze, silver, or gold. The crescent-shaped blade and the handle extending up centrally from it are characteristic traits. The knives were used for sacrifices as well as for medical operations, and often served as burial objects. This tumi, which comes from the Chimú culture (1000–1470 AD) on the northern coast of Peru, features unique and conspicuous decoration: the person sitting in the middle holds on to the two figures at his side, while the standing figure sets a tumitohis head. This scene probably depicts a surgical perforation of the skull. Such operations were already carried out successfully more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Peru, as evidenced by numerous mummies that have been discovered.