Bird Pin or Spatula

Unknown

5th–9th century · Gold · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

The bird at the top of this spatula is worked in a style found in the art of Tiwanaku, an influential city-state of the second half of the first millennium A.D. in the highland basin of Lake Titicaca in modern Bolivia. the "pin" may have been used to hold clothing in place or perhaps as a lime spatula. The ritual use of coca leaves, to which powdered lime is added with a spoon or spatula, has been a tradition in Andean South America for thousands of years.

Artist

Unknown

Date

5th–9th century

Medium

Gold

Culture

Tiwanaku

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979