Pendant 9th-12th century

This striking pendant was crafted by the Venado Beach culture, who lived in what is now Panama. Its lustrous gold surface and intricate form speak to the maker's skill. Gold has always been a significant material, valued for its beauty and relative scarcity. But here, it also speaks to the social structure that supported its extraction and manipulation. Gold doesn't just appear; it must be mined and processed, often through arduous labor. The Venado Beach culture likely had a stratified society where some individuals or groups controlled access to this precious material. The lost-wax casting process was probably used to make this pendant. Molten gold would have been poured into a mold created from wax. The result is an object that embodies both technical expertise and cultural meaning, a testament to the ways that materials and making are always deeply intertwined with social life.