Combining gold and silver, or the colors of gold and silver, was of paramount interest to Moche metalsmiths and their audience. In a previous study of Loma Negra metalwork, objects that juxtapose solid gold and silver sheer were considered together with objects - primarily disk ornaments - where gold and silver layers had been applied to copper substrates (Schorsch, 1993; Schorsch, 1998). Ultimately ten methods used by the Moche to combine gold and silver, mostly in the form of sheet metal, but involving different mechanical, adhesive and metallurgical methods of joining, were identified. At the same time, as systematic examination of copper-based metalwork from Loma Negra progressed (Howe, et. al., 1993; Schorsch, et. al., n.d.), it became apparent that far more types of objects combined gilded and silvered copper sheet than the disks that were examined in-depth for the previous study. On the basis of this additional information, objects that juxtapose precious metal surface layers can be recognized as expressions of an aesthetic different than that which shaped the ornaments made of salid gold and silver sheet.

Figure 3: Disk, gilded copper, Moche, fraro Loma Negra. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of  Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.46).

Among metal objects attributed to the Moche culture, the greatest sophistication and elaboration in style and technology, and the most lavish use of precious metals, were employed in the manufacture of items for personal adornment of the head, including earflares, headdresses, necklace elements, and nose ornaments (figs. 2, 4-6). Of the various types of objects known from Loma Negra, the composite gold and silver nose ornaments exhibit the greatest diversity in their manufacture. In fact, the relatively frequent occurrence of nose ornaments in material culture and imagery, the sophistication and variety of their design, and their lavish use of precious materials, suggest that nose ornaments, although not unknown among other Andean cultures, can be recognized as a particularly Moche form of expression in metal.