There were one or two missing fragments which had not been found during the excavation and these areas needed to be in-filled with acrylic modeling paste; after which they were touched up with gouache (an opaque water color) to aide the area's blending with the surrounding metal (photograph 10,11).

Photograph 8

We made special note of the nice finishing of the top arch and side edges of the tongue (photograph 8). The chisel cut marks around the edges had been nicely finished using a stone file; so that they were very smooth. This was a wonderful craftsmanlike touch we thought, especial1y since, when finished it would never be seen again until worked on by myself; but a further practical reason for the smooth edge finish became evident later. The need for a substrate support for the fragmented tongue is explained by the fact that the metal for the tongue, was a copper, silver, gold alloy, e.g.: 75% copper, plus 12% each of gold and silver, and was very thin and embrittled due to its long association with large amounts of cinnabar (mercurous sulfide) on the floor of the burial plus other salts in the burial situation. We were unable to take accurate measurements of the, thickness of the tongue due to the minor encrustation of corrosion products, however, we believe that it was slightly thicker than the gold of the face.It was deemed there was no other safe way to handle the tongue but to give it the almost invisible support mentioned. After the metal was installed on the substrate and the in-fills touched up, the underside (the heavy board itself) was also colored to minimize its presence (photograph 9, 11). At this point in the reassembly of the entire piece it was thought that the tongue must attach to the backplate and be, in effect, independent of the head ... the real puzzle here was that there were no holes in the tongue metal, and when finished the tongue did not fit correctly for attachment to the backplate. When flat against the backplate it barely protruded from the mouth and at a strange angle. Further, there were no holes for attachment on the back plate, and because of the angle the tongue had been bent, it did not sit flat in the lower jaw. We are totally certain the bend in the tongue was incident to manufacture and not the haphazard result of the tons of earth on top of it.

Photograph 9

Photograph 10

Finally, when everything else had been tried and rejected we simply sat the tongue on the agape lower jaw and ...it showed us where it went. Unnoticed as a part of the built in anatomy in the goldwork, there was a neat U-shaped trench in the soft palate of the interior lower jaw which when we sat it there the tongue fit into perfectly (photographs 7, 11). That problem solved, it remained to discover how it was attached to the whole originally.

With continued study of the head back and front, it was noticed that the upright part of the tongue, when placed in the location we had found in the lower jaw, the upright part fit neatly in the space between the back of the eye sockets (photograph 11). It occurred, that one of the conventions so often applied in pre-columbian metalwork is articulation, and what a meaningful place to apply it. this also solved the question of what the tour holes were for in the bottom of the eye sockets. The two horizontals (photograph 5) would be for placing string through to attach the amber/turquoise eyes with a finial knot of string in the center of the turquoise. The two verticals were there to make sort of a cat's cradle into which the upright part of the tongue would 'snuggle intertwined and be held securely but allow the tongue to wiggle in a lifelike manner (photographs 11, 12). Here also could be the reason for the fine edge finishing. The well-finished edges would not fray and cut the string. |Eureka!

Photograph 11

It remained only to try this and see if their humor and inventiveness would come through one more time. When it was all in place, the tongue fit as neatly as it no doubt had 1,000 plus years ago. More than that, when attached it wiggled, lifelike, at the slightest movement.

The entire head was finished, the Cone shaped fangs and the tongue giving the piece an eerie lifelike quality. The last part to be attached was the half circular topknot; fascinating for its eleven tiny articulated bosses and the very tiny holes on the outside edge which were used to lash something to the edge of the piece (photograph 13). Though we'll never know for sure, a good guess would be tiny feathers this would have given a jaunty furry look to the edge. lnstalled on the top back of the head, we could now see the finished piece cleaned and reunited. Completed, the bat head could now go to its place above the ceremonial mask on the headdress.

One mystery remained to be solved and that was how this one-off piece was fashioned. At this juncture, we were sure that this piece was indeed a bat... several items in its anatomy gave no doubt. The eyes when put to right were not the eyes of a peccary which spends it days poking its snout into places where large wide open eyes would be a disadvantage. Peccary do not usually run around with their mouths agape and their tongues hanging out. And they don't have fangs; |However, the common vampire bat does. |Desmodus rotundus weighs in at about 40 grams or little over an ounce (photograph 14, 15). These bats are quite tiny, and range throughout the Americas feeding on sleeping warm blooded mammals. They are nocturnal, so large eyes are an advantage at night as well as the large fangs for making the feeding wound. It is interesting that these bats have relatively long wings, which enable them to fly long distances rapidly but consume only small amounts of energy doing so. (It has occurred that the back plate mar be the artists rendition of these wings.)

These bats are members of the Leaf nosed bat family |Phyllostomidae and their heat detecting system is located on the nose leaf (photograph 7); this allows them to locate an area on the sleeping victim where the blood flows closest to the skin. The razor sharp fangs (which are conical, and have no enamel) then make a quick cut ...it is at this point that the tongue comes out and begins to lap up the blood and an enzyme in the saliva keeps the blood from clotting.

The goldsmith must have used a dead bat to fashion his six times larger tribute in gold; We can only surmise what condition the little corpse must have been in when the goldsmith received it. Perhaps condition played a part in the why's of artistic license here. Dead things are often quite different from live things!

Photograph 12