From Paracas to Nasca, continuity and innovation in metals

Abstract

The development of metallurgy in the south Andes had a very different dynamic from that of its contemporaries in the north. The earliest findings of metal artifacts are located in the Early Horizon with Paracas, characterized by the use of gold worked in sheets with simple designs and shapes. Later on, the Nasca continued with the predominant use of gold and an almost unaltered technology based on the handling of simple manufacturing techniques with simple embossed decoration, and the development of three-dimensional shapes. Through the study of the collection of the metal objects from the Ocucaje and the Wari Kayan cemetery, technological continuities and typological discontinuities have been identified over time, during the Paracas Nasca transition.