HUMAN FIGURE IN COPPER-OOLD ALLOY. 



41 



goldsmiths and speculators, who, accordiug to Mr. McNiel, are known 

 in a few cases to have ' ' doctored " alloyed objects with washes of 

 gold with the view ol' sellin,-;- flifiii as purr -did. 



I present the follnwin- s|N',iiiiciis wilh a reasonable degree of con- 

 fidence that all, or nearly all. aivof imrrly American fabrication, and 

 I sincerely hope that at no distant day competent archaeologists may 

 have the opportunity of making personal observations of similar relics 

 in place. 



The objects consist to a great extent of representations of life forms, 

 in many cases more fanciful than real and often extremely grotesque. 

 They include the human figure and a great variety of birds and 

 beasts indigenous to the country, in styles resembling work in clay 

 and stone of the same region. My illustrations show the actual 

 sizes of the object^ 



The human fiynie — Statuettes ot men and women and of a variety 

 of anthropomoi phic figures of all dtsgrees of elaboration abound. 

 Fig. 20 illustrdt(>b a plain, rude bpecimen belonging to the collection of 



Fig. 26. Human figure with ridged crown, formed of copper-gold alloy. 



J. B. Stearns. It was obtained by Mr. McNiel from near the south 

 base of Mount Chiriqui. The body is solid and the surface is rough 

 and pitted, as if from decay. In many respects it resembles the stone 

 sculptures of the isthmus. Theiui-tai is nearly pure eopper. A piece 

 exhibiting more elaborate workuiaiiship. illustiated hy I'.nllaei-t,' is 

 shown in Fig. 37. Another remarkable sperinieii is illustrated hy De 

 Zeltner, but the photograph published with his brochure is too indis- 

 tinct to permit of satisfactory reproduction. He describes it in the 

 following language: 



The most curious piece in my collection is a gold figure of a man, 7 centimeters 

 in height. The head is ornamented with a diadem terminated on each side with the 

 head of a frog. The body is nude, except a girdle, also in the form of a plait, sup- 

 porting a flat piece intended to cover the privates, and two round ornaments on 

 ' BoUaert: Antiquarian Researches in New Granada, plate facing p. 31. 



