Votive figure in the shape of an enclosure with anthropomorphous figures

This strange, heavy, rustic metal object, made by a Muisca metalsmith who was in a hurry, has many stories to tell. It was cast in a copper and gold alloy, using the lost wax method. Not only did the metalsmith in Pasca, one of the places where the Muiscas produced goldwork, not polish the object after he removed it from the mould or add finishing touches to it, unlike what his Quimbaya colleague would have done, he also failed to cut the massive casting channels: we can see them at the bottom, together with the casting button, the place where the gold entered the mould. Actually, in deference to the figures, this photograph is the wrong way round: the metalsmith cast the object upside-down, which was common practice amongst the Muiscas. The molten metal entered the clay and charcoal-dust mould through the funnel that is now the button, ran down the channels, and filled out the shape of the figures that the artisan had moulded in wax and had then heated and removed, in order to leave an empty space. Close observation reveals traces of black earth between the interstices in the metal: this could be part of that fine charcoal dust which metalsmiths added to the wax when they began to make the mould, as Spanish chronicler Friar Bernardino de Sahagún described. The noticeable difference in size of the figures, made of strands that once were of wax, was the Muisca way of dealing graphically with the question of social hierarchy. The largest and most important figure, with gold earrings, is holding a tray in his hands, an implement used when consuming snuff of yopo, a potent hallucinogen that helped making predictions. EL