Gold Spider Nose Ornament gold c. 100 BCE to 200 CE Salinar culture Colombia

Modifications to the body have long been a human tradition across cultures worldwide, including the Pre-Columbian Americas. One of the materials they used to make adornments for the nose, ears and other areas of the body was gold. For the cultures of the Isthmo-Colombian area — which included eastern Honduras, Caribbean Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and northern Colombia — gold was often symbolic of the sun. The material itself was found throughout modern-day Colombia, richer in some regions more than others, and had numerous uses and symbolism throughout the various indigenous groups over time. The promise of gold and its riches, not land, drew the attention of the Spanish Conquistadors and other Europeans in the 16th century. As Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) once replied to an official who offered land for settlement in Hispaniola, “But I came to get gold not to till the land like a peasant.” Yet they were dismayed and angry to find that once they melted down the plundered gold, it wasn’t pure. That’s due to the fact that many golden objects were created from a manmade gold alloy (gold layered on top of copper and/or silver) referred to as tumbaga. It made the material more malleable during production and more resistant to corrosion. The deception had not been intentional. It was a clash of cultures, as for many indigenous groups the gold held no value until it was molded into either something useful or aesthetically pleasing.