Adam Hartj. Silvered and gilded copper metalwork from Loma Negra:

Abstract: The Moche, who inhabited the north coast of Peru in the Early Intermedia te Period, hada rich metallurgical production that employed, for the most part, hammered sheet of various metals joined by mechanical means. The artisans who produced the metal gravegoods deposited in Moche burials at Loma Negra used an electrochemical replacement plating process to apply precious metallayers to copper substrates, a method tbat was wtique to the Piura Valley, where the si te is located, far from the Moche heartland on the other side of the formidable Sechura Desert. Considered here are two types of objects in the Loma Negra corpus- disk ornaments and fox head headdress ornaments- assembled from copper sheet plated using this remarkable method, which allowed the deposition of extremely thin layers of gold and silver of any composition. In addition to construction and surface treatment, this paper considers how these colorful, animated three-dimen-sional ornaments might have been perceived by the ancient observer. Resumen: Los Moche, pobladores de la costa norte del Perú durante e