Description
A good Tairona Pre Columbian gold pendant amulet of a protective spirit anciently strung as a necklace with beads of stone or semi-precious materials. The metal that it is made of is a gold alloy is also known as tumbaga and it was invented and used extensively by the ancient peoples of the Americas. This example was made by the Tairona peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Marta in ancient northern Colombia.
The goldsmiths of ancient Tairona were virtuoso craftsmen who produced some of the most intricate pieces of ancient jewelry that compare favorably with the jewelry produced anywhere in the Ancient Near East or Asia.
The wonderful example we offer here depicts a spirit of the jungle, possibly a marsupial Opossum which was revered by the natives of pre-Columbian South America because of its potent self-protective abilities through the paralyzing effects of the odor it emits when threatened. It is clutching its young with its hind legs which may be in its belly-pouch.
As a pendant it has the original suspension loops and it is ready to be re-strung and used as a necklace pectoral charm. The original people who created it believed in its powerful protective abilities as a talisman and a lucky charm.
For an extensive discussion of the process by which the tumbaga gold jewelry was produced see:
