Coclé Gold Double Figural Pendant with Staffs, circa AD 800-1500

Referred to as the "Twin War God" pendant by Andre Emmerich, this densely cast and dramatic pendant emulates a fierce and powerful aura. The conjoined stylized alligator figures have distinctive tapered bodies ending in slender loops. The sharply turned addorsed heads each show the detailed openwork mouth of rows of triangular teeth, projecting eyes on each side of the squared snouts, and are surmounted by short upcurled scrolls. The inner arms share holding an effigy scepter and each outer arm is holding a weapon or staff with a large trapezoidal blade. Across each of the figure's chest is a narrow band of braided design. There are two suspension loops on the reverse. 

The sharp profile saurian head is a feature often painted on ceramics of highly animated alligator-headed figures. For a gold double figural pendant holding staffs with tapered tusk-like bodies, see Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, Archaeology of Southern Veraguas, Panama, Cambridge, 1950, p. 67, fig. 105a.

The combination of animal and human creatures is one of the key traits of Central American goldwork. Cooke and Bray aptly refer to the numerous identities of the figural ornaments. "Customarily referred to as gods, they are more reasonably interpreted as tribal man-animal culture heroes, mythical warriors, eponymous clan markers or alter egos." (Richard G. Cooke and Warwick Bray, "The Goldwork of Panama: An Iconographic and Chronological Perspective", in Julie Jones, ed., The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection, New York, 1985, p. 35).