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origin of huacas
The Origin of Huacas
The term
huaca that
is used to describe the gold pieces used in Marie-France’s jewelry is
derived
from the Spanish term for a burial cache or offering. The
term Coclé
used to describe the
pre-Columbian Panamanian culture that produced the
huacas is derived from the name
of the province in Panama
where these gold objects were first discovered by archaeologists from
Harvard University's Peabody Museum in
1930. Since their initial
discovery at Sitio Conte in Coclé,
many
more huacas have been discovered in
the
provinces of Herrera, Los Santos, Veraguas, and Colón
as well. The earliest Coclé huacas date from
between the year 1 A.D. to about 500 A.D.
The
Tairona, Sinu and Quimbaya cultures in Colombia
all had similar styles of gold work that originated about the same
period.
Later, between 400 A. D. and 1100 A.D., comparable gold pieces were made in Costa Rica. All of these
cultures abruptly ended gold
production with the arrival of the Spanish in the 1520’s.
The Coclé huacas
were produced by native
goldsmiths utilizing gold nuggets that had been
panned out of
rivers,
melted
down, and poured into one-off molds made by the “lost wax”
method.
A
model of the pendant was first carved out of beeswax, and then a small,
wax cone was attached by its tip to the top of the pendant.
Once completed, the wax model was dipped into cool water to
harden, and then pressed back-side down into a wad of soft, wet
clay with the base of the cone protruding from the edge of the clay.
Next, wooden pins were pressed down into the clay on each side of
the wax model, leading out from the wax model to the top edge of
the clay wad. A second clay wad was then pressed down unto the
front side of the wax model, entirely encasing the wax and all but the
tips of the wooden pins and the base of the wax cone. After
drying in the sun, the clay was baked in a fire, burning away the wax
and wooden pins, leaving a hollow mold in the center. The hollow
left after the cone burned away now served as the funnel into
which molten gold would be poured into the mold. The gold
was melted in a crucible, and then poured gently into the funnel.
The
tubular passages left behind after the wooden pegs had burned away
allowed any air trapped in the mold to escape as the molten gold was
introduced. After the gold had cooled, the pendant was broken out
of the clay mold, which, once shattered, could not be re-used.
The sprues left from the cone and pins were broken off, and the
pendant polished to a high sheen with silica-rich crocodile dung.
Besides these gold pendants, chiefs and
shamans would have owned and worn gold diadems,
earrings, nose rings,
gorgets, pectorals,
armbands, wristbands, greaves, and anklets.
For
further reading, see:
Hearne, P. and R. J.
Shearer, eds.
River of
Gold: Precolumbian Treasures
from Sitio Conde,
Philadelphia,
1992.
Lothrop,
Samuel K., Coclé:
An Archaeological Study of Central
Panamá,
Part 1,
Cambridge,
1937.
Lothrop,
Samuel K., Coclé:
An Archaeological Study of Central
Panamá, Part 2, Cambridge, 1942.
Quilter,
J. and J. W. Hoopes, eds. Gold and Power in Ancient
Costa Rica, Panama, and
Colombia, Washington,
2003.
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