DIQUÍS GOLD FIGURAL PENDANT CIRCA AD 800-1200

Ceremonial pendants of shaman and warrior figures prominently display their accoutrements of prestige and power. This densely cast male stands on elongated filigree feet and holds large flaring paddle-shaped clubs in each hand. Wooden clubs of this form, called macanas, were mentioned in the 16th c. chronicles (Cooke and Bray, in Jones, ed., The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection, New York, 1985, p. 39). His trance-like face is marked by the tight-lipped mouth, coffee-bean style closed eyes, and the top of his head is surmounted by two frogs with rounded heads and frothy spirals at the back; it has double suspension loops behind the neck.