Metal-Ceramic Relationship

There are various other cross-craft examples in Middle Sicán material culture. J. Muelle (1943) and J. Rondón (1965/6) earlier noted a ridge or fine groove around the circumference near the median point of the spherical body of Middle Sicán single-spout bottles with pedestal bases. This ridge or groove was not related to the manufacture of these vessels, which were largely built with two-piece vertical molds. Rondón (1965/6) argued that this feature was an imitation of the "ridges" and hiles formed in the manufacture of metal bottles when the two sheetmetal halves forming the the body were mechanically joined on the exterior and interior, respectively (Photograph 4). Given that known Middle Sicán metal objects were fashioned out of gold alloy sheets, the above ceramic imitations are interpreted as reflecting the higher prestige/status value of the gold alloy.

The popular low-relief press-mold decorations on Middle Sicán blackware vessels mar have been modeled after identical or more detailed repoussé designs on gold alloy sheet objects such as beakers and plaques. One example is the frontal view standing Sicán Deity with or without accompanying mythical, seated felines or bicephalous serpent with serrated back (Fig. 6).

Further insights into Sicán metal-ceramic relations mar be gained by examining funerary context ceramic vessels completely wrapped in tumbaga sheetmetal about 0.01 mm in thickness. Electron probe microanalysis of the corroded sheetmetal sample indicates a composition of 17-26% gold, 15-16% silver, 16-43% copper and 0.7% arsenic (the rest is assumed to be corrosion product; Merkel et al. 1995:121). Copper had been depleted from the surface layer some  micron thick. 1 This limited depletion is suspected to have resulted from a repeated coldworking-annealing-pickling cycle, and not from intentional depletion (Merkel et al. 1995: 121).

All black double-spout and bridge ceramic bottles from the three elite shafttombs excavated thus far at Huaca Las Ventanas and Huaca Loro have had the corroded remains of tumbaga sheetmetal still covering the vessels (Fig. 7). In some cases, the organic resin that was used to anchor the sheets is still preserved. Using infrared micro-spectroscopy, Eugene Farrell (1992, personal communication), conservator at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard

University, identified the adhesive as a mixture of locally abundant algarrobo (Prosopis  pallida) resin with perhaps some fish-bone-based glue added. In comparison with ceramic bottles excavated from more than 50 Middle Sicán tombs at some 20 sites of different character in and outside of the Lambayeque regíon (e.g., Guffroy et al. 1989; Shimada 1995), these metal-covered double-spout vessels were well-made, often elaborately decorated, and restricted to the elite shafttombs.

While we earlier thought that sheetmetal covering was restricted to fine, double-spout bottles, two large, off-white, slipped, short neck jars subsequently found in the Huaca Loro West Tomb were also covered with sheetmetal. One jar was plain, while the other was decorated with modeled creatures (believed to be Pacific crocodiles [Crocodylus acutus]) on its shoulder and simple red lines near the base of the neck. In all these cases, the sheetmetal cover effectively obscured the surface finish and decoration.

Metal-Textile Interplay

Another dimension of the complex relationship between metallurgy and other crafts is seen in painted cotton cloth with gilded sheetmetal backing. Excavated Sicán textiles are rare and documented cases are overwhelmingly plain or painted cotton (Shimada 1995: 135-139, his Figs. 119-121; also see Flores 1984). Many of the textiles described by Reid (1989) as pertaining to the "Lambayeque style" are woolen (camelid fiber), but when and where they were woven remain uncertain as all of his examples were looted specimens with no pravenience information.