Chavin & Chimu

The Chavín were an Early Horizon civilization that existed in present-day Peru. They’re thought to have developed around 900 BC and died out around 200 BC, after laying the cultural foundation for the other Peruvian civilizations to come.

The Chavin worked their gold by hammering it into fine sheets which could be cut with stone shears, then decoratively embossed. The gold was naturally very pure and enabled the ancient pre-Columbian craftsmen to progress quickly to discovering metallurgical techniques.

Between 500 BC and 500 AD, the Nazca society developed in southern Peru. Their goldsmiths continued to create pieces by hammering, but they also discovered casting. This involved melting the gold and pouring it into a mould (usually ceramic), before the article was finished by polishing and burnishing. 

The Chimu Empire (from 1150 to 1450 AD) developed from the northern Peruvian tribes, and is thought to have been exposed to Mexican influences. They learned the technique of lost wax casting, and the craft of filigree (using metal threads produced by rolling wire under tension). They also developed plating using an alloy of 70% copper and 30% gold.

Incas & Aztecs

When the Incas conquered the Chimu in the mid-fifteenth century, the Chimu held gold in high esteem; the sun was a deity, and gold was considered to be ‘the sweat of the sun’. In their efforts to provide more gold for the artisans, the Incas developed mining techniques beyond the simple excavations dug into the mountains by their predecessors.

Hernan Cortes of Spain reached Mexico in 1519. His weapons alarmed Emperor Montezuma of the Aztecs who, hoping to make friends with the newcomers, offered them priceless gifts of gold. But his attempts were futile and Cortes, not satisfied, advanced into the main settlement of the Aztecs, defeated Montezuma, and seized his vast gold treasure.

A few years later, in 1531, Francisco Pizarro invaded Peru and captured the ruler of the Incas, Atahualpa. As ransom, the latter offered to fill the prison room ‘once with gold and twice with silver’. Over the next four months nearly eight tonnes of gold were accumulated but, in return, Pizarro had Atahualpa strangled in public. In order to ship the gold back to Spain, Pizarro had most of the beautiful artefacts melted down. South American plunder became Europe's prime source of gold and relatively few of the ancient treasures remain.

Once the hoards of artefacts from the New World were exhausted, the supply of gold petered out. The conquerors had neither the skills nor the manpower to maintain the Inca mines or locate and exploit new ones. But the economy of Western Europe had been transformed, at the incalculable expense of almost three thousand years of cultural achievement and the destruction of an ancient civilisation.