Inka Road: Gold figure

Gold Inka figurine, AD 1470–1532. Coastal Peru. Gold, 9 x 7 x 24 cm.

The gold figure represents an important Inka woman. Gold was a sacred material to the Inka, so its use and display was highly restricted. Figurines like these were left as offerings at religious spaces or worn as ornaments
by members of the Inka elite. This figure may have been dressed in miniature textiles when it was used as anoffering during the Inka period.

Photo by Ernest Amoroso / National Museum of the American Indian