Las paletas de calero de la costa central durante el Horizonte Tardío (1440-1532 d. C.)

Abstract

A group of objects from burials, belonging to the metals collection of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú (MNAAHP), were identified as lime pallets, related to the consumption of coca leaves. The aim of this work is to describe their typology, alloys and the manufacturing technologies employed, as well as to define the relation between these characteristics and the gender of the buried individual. This study is completed by a description of the conservation treatment that was applied in 2014 at the request of the museum direction. A corpus consisting of twelve contextualized Late Horizon lime pallets from the sites of Rinconada, Isla San Lorenzo and Armatambo, located on the central coast of Peru, was selected. Macroscopic and radiographic exams were carried out to better understand the composition and the manufacture techniques employed. The study of the contexts and the comparison with similar objects from the sites of Pachacamac, Huaca de la Luz, Inca Uyu, Machu Picchu and Túcume shed new light on the relation between alloys and techniques and the individual’s gender. Lime palettes were apparently used during shamanic rituals. The silver alloys with ornithomorphe representations were associated with male individuals while pallets made of copper alloys with spherical representation were associated with female individuals.

Keywords

• Armatambo
• coca
• palette
• liming
• Rinconada
• San Lorenzo