Nose ornaments are among the earliest jewelry forms in ancient Peru and were made in a variety of styles. Among the Moche people of the north coast, they were an essential part of both male and female royal regalia. Living in the dry desert, the Moche depended on products from the sea for food and inland trade; hence, sea creatures of all kinds played an important role in their mythology and are frequent themes in their art. On this handsome ornament, which covered the wearer's mouth when worn, two realistically rendered shrimp are worked in sheet-gold tabbed through slits to the silver crescent. It has been suggested that the shape and combination of metals may have indicated the rank and/or function of the wearer.
High-quality Moche ceramic vessels began appearing on the art market in Peru in the 1960s. They came, apparently, from the far north, while traditionally the Moche world centered further south in the Moche Valley itself. Moche style works of art in metal—fine personal ornaments of gold and silver—also appeared, and finally numerous looted northern tombs were identified. Some of the metal works were not dispersed individually, but kept together, going instead to markets in the United States or Europe. This handsome silver and gold nose ornament was part of such a group from the site of Loma Negra in the northern Piura Valley.
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Title:Nose Ornament with Shrimp
Date:6th–7th century
Geography:Peru
Culture:Moche
Medium:Gold, silver, stone
Dimensions:H. 4 7/8 x W. 7 1/2 x D. 1/8 in. (12.4 x 19.1 x 0.3 cm)
Classification:Metal-Ornaments
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Accession Number:1979.206.1236
[André Emmerich Gallery, New York, until 1969]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1969, on loan to The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1969–1978
State Hermitage Museum. "The Gold of Ancient America," August 4, 1976–October 1, 1976.
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "The Gold of Ancient America," October 15, 1976–December 15, 1976.
National Historical Museum of Ukraine. "The Gold of Ancient America," January 5, 1977–March 1, 1977.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loma Negra, a Peruvian Lord's Tomb," October 13, 1992–July 4, 1993.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of 'The Best' in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," October 7, 2013–October 9, 2014.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jewelry: The Body Transformed," November 12, 2018–February 24, 2019.
Disselhoff, Hans-Dietrich. "Metallschmuck aus der Loma Negra, Vicus (Nord-Peru)." Antike Welt vol. 3 (1972), pp. 43–53.
Lapiner, Alan C. Pre-Columbian Art of South America. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1976, p. 160, pl. 391.
Donnan, Christopher B. Moche Art of Peru: Pre-Columbian Symbolic Communication. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, 1978.
Newton, Douglas. Masterpieces of Primitive Art: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, pp. 208–209.
Jones, Julie. "Mochica Works of Art in Metal: A Review." In Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1979, pp. 53–104.
Newton, Douglas. "The art of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fall 1981), p. 2.
Lechtman Heather Nan, Antonieta Erling, and Edward J. Barry Jr. "New Perspectives on Moche Metallurgy; Techniques of Gilding Copper at Loma Negra, Northern Peru." American Antiquity vol. 47 (1982), pp. 3–30.
Schorsch, Deborah. "Silver-and-Gold Moche Artifacts from Loma Negra, Peru." Metropolitan Museum Journal vol. 33 (1998), p. 113, figs. 7, 8.
King, Heidi, Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, and Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech. Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru. New York, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, pp. 30–31, no. 2.
King, Heidi. "Regen des Mondes –– Silver in Alt-Peru." Antike Welt: Zeitschrift für Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte vol. 1, no. 32 (January 2001), p. 77, fig. 1.
Jones, Julie, and Heidi King. "Gold of the Americas." The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art vol. 59, no. 4 (Spring 2002).
King, Heidi. "Perubüro Heidelberg der Erzdiözese Freiburg." Peru-Nachrichten no. 57 (September 2002), p. 37.
Kaulicke, Peter. "The Vicús-Mochica Relationship." In Andean Archaeology III, edited by William H. Isbell, and Helaine Silverman. Boston: Springer Publishing Company, 2006.
Donnan, Christopher B. "Moche State Religion." In New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization, edited by Jeffrey Quilter, and Luis Jaime Castillo. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2010, pp. 47–69.
Bourget, Steve. Les rois mochica: Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancient. Paris and Geneva: Somogy éditions d'art, 2014.
Castillo, Luis Jaime. "Masters of the Universe: Moche Artists and Their Patrons." In Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, Kim N. Richter, and Timothy F. Potts. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017, pp. 24–31.
Falchetti, Ana Maria, and Universidad de los Andes, Ediciones Uniandes: Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia e Historia. Lo humano y lo divino: Metalurgia y cosmogonía en la América antigua. Bogota, 2018, p. 36, fig. 1.
Holcomb, Melanie, ed. Jewelry: The Body Transformed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, pp. 30–37, pl. 6.
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