Tuesday, 18th September 2007 (2554 views)

A museum exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania intends to showcase a collection of pre-Columbian gold artefacts discovered during a 1940s excavation.

River of Gold: Pre-Columbian Treasures from Sitio Conte at the Penn Museum will feature over 120 gold artefacts dating from between 700 and 900 AD.

The treasures were not discovered until the mid 20th century when the changing course of the Rio Grande de Cocle began to expose the previously undiscovered Sitio Conte cemetery.

"Goldsmiths of Sitio Conte, working with the simplest of tools, utilised technologies such as embossing, lost-wax casting and depletion gilding that allowed them to achieve extraordinary aesthetic effects," said Dr Pamela Jardine, the curator of the River of Gold exhibition.

Gold-sheathed ear rods and nose ornaments, bangles, pendants, bells and beads are all set to be displayed in the exhibit, which opens on September 23rd and also features detailed records and photographs of the 1940s excavation team that unearthed the artefacts.

River of Gold will run at the Penn Museum until December 16th.

 

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