Aquilla (metal beaker),

1100–1470

The use of metal to produce drinking vessels came relatively late to the Andes—around the ninth century CE among the Lambeyeque and Chimú peoples of Peru’s north coast, where gold and silver beakers have been found in massive quantities in lavish graves. The beakers may have been made in pairs, as had been common in the production of wooden keros, ceremonial vessels for fermented ritual drinks. The sets may have served to cement relations between two individuals and the polities they represented, although their placement in tombs is more suggestive of grand feasts than intimate, focal toasts. The aquillas displayed here were produced from sheets of metal, carefully hammered to form seamless vessels with impressively thin walls. At some point near the end of the process, designs were added in relief by repoussé or chasing techniques.