Calima/Cauca/Yotoco Objects
Gold & precious metal objects of the Calima, Cauca, and Yotoco cultures of Southwestern Colombia

The hills of the upper- and mid-Calima river region and the flat part of the Cauca valley in Valle del Cauca province are home to remains of settlements dating back almost 9,000 years.

People's physical features and details of their everyday activities can be seen in the pottery vessels that belonged to farmers in the Ilama period (1500 to 100 B.C.). Fantastic, mythical beings with a mixture of human, feline, amphibian, bat and snake features and characteristics attempt to capture the strength, bravery, ferocity and agility of these animals.

Funerary regalia from the Yotoco Period (200 B.C. to 1200 A.D.) relates the chieftain who wore it to feline figures. An enigmatic, iconic, repeated face expressed values and beliefs, and acted as support for the leaders' power and rank. In the cemetery at Malagana (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.), masks that look like skulls or lifeless faces were superimposed on the dead.

Leading figures in the Sonso period (650 to 1700 A.D.) were buried in sarcophagi with harpoons, lances and darts made of palm, in marked contrast to those from earlier periods

Breastplates, pendants and pins in a typical style, which has been called Cauca, have been found in the area near Popayán. These were made and used by societies that lived around the time of the Conquest, and depicted combinations of men, birds and batrachians that probably had a religious significance

Gold Anthropomorphic Pendant
Dated (AD 800-1600)
From: Colombia (Calima)

Art & Antiquities Dealer [1]

Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem

Private collection

Private collection

pectorals were worn suspended from the neck to cover the chest. They exploited the reflective properties of hammered gold to create a dazzling impression as they captured and reflected the light of the sun. Such objects were held to mirror solar qualities in the earthly sphere and to embody the qualities and attributes of the wearer as a divine representative.

Art & Antiquities Dealer [1]

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Called torzales, and are common in Cauca goldwork. Several of the bird-man breastplates have them instead of a beak, as an element of transformation. When a shaman or chieftain wore one of these heavy nose rings, his community perhaps thought it shone with the color of a beak and he therefore took on the powers of the bird.

Columbian Gold Museum

From: Colombia (Cauca)

Worcester Art Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

British Museum

This pendant was cast in tumbaga, an alloy of gold and copper, using the lost-wax technique. The figure on this pendant combines human attributes with the outstretched wings of a bird. These elements allude to shamanic powers of flight. After careful ritual preparations, the shaman ingests powerful hallucinogens which release his soul and enables him to 'fly' into other dimensions of the cosmos. Under the influence of such substances, the shaman believes that he can transform himself into an animal or bird and assume its powers and attributes.

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

click photos to enlarge

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum

Columbian Gold Museum