Ancient South American Metal Technology: Surfaces, Alloys and Colours

Metals were discovered and developed independently in ancient South America. This resulted in a number of developments unique to various regions. Arsenical copper and tin bronze featured in some areas, but in many regions gilding, surface enrichment, depletion gilding and coloration were very important. This led to extremely thin gold coatings in what is now Peru and platinum coated gold in what is now present day Ecuador. Depletion gilding and silvering were commonly used in many cultures. Examples of the use of gold, copper, silver, and platinum in the creation of some of these alloys will be discussed with examples from the Moche culture of Peru to the Tairona culture of Northern Colombia.

David A. Scott is Professor Emeritus, UCLA Department of Art History, Los Angeles and was the founding Director of the UCLA/Getty Conservation Training Programme which began accepting graduate students in 2005. He was head of the Museum Services Laboratory at the Getty Museum from 1989-2003 and before taking up this post he was a Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, London teaching conservation and conservation science. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013 and is the author of eight books and over 150 peer-reviewed papers. He now lives in Hastings in the UK and continues to teach and research while pursuing Cyanotype art.