page_title: Zenú
section_title: Gold ornaments
hierarchical_section_title: Zenú / Pre-Columbian period / Gold ornaments
caption_attribution_description: English: [One of a] Pair of Earrings, AD 800 Zenú / Sinú region, Colombia Gold The Dom Joseph Judge, M.D. Collection donated by the Judge Family 2002.24.1a, b This pair of cast filigree earrings is characteristic of the Zenú / Sinú culture of ancient Colombia.
context_page_description: The Zenú or Sinú is a pre-Columbian culture in Colombia, whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinú and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo. These lands lie within the departments of Córdoba and Sucre.
  The Zenú culture existed from about 200 BCE to about 1600 CE, constructing major waterworks and producing gold ornaments. The gold that was often buried with their dead lured the Spanish conquerors, who looted much of the gold. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the tribe almost died out due to excessive taxation, forced labor, and western diseases caused. The Zenú language disappeared around 200 years ago, however, the 2018 Colombian Census showed 307,091 Zenú people alive today.
  In 1773 The King of Spain designated 83,000 hectares in San Andrés de Sotavento as a Zenú reserve. This reserve existed until it was dissolved by the National Assembly of Colombia in 1905. The Zenú have fought for the restoration of the reserve, and in 1990 San Andrés de Sotavento was restored as a Zenú reserve with a land area of 10,000 hectares.
context_section_description: The web of canals was reflected in their art, culture, and symbolic thinking. For the Zenú, the world seemed to be a large wicker-work, on which living beings were placed. This symbolism is reflected in the patterns of fishing nets, textiles, pottery and goldwork. As the web of channels was the place where daily life took place, so also did people and animals appear in the metallic fabric of cast semi-filigree earrings.
  Semi-filigree, which was not woven with gold thread but cast using the lost wax method, was the characteristic feature of the decoration of Zenú goldwork. Next to casting, gold was also hammered into plates and reliefs. Gold ornaments typically were made of an alloy with a high degree of gold. Waterfowl, alligators, fish, cat, and deer figures were sources of food as well as elements of their culture. The animal world was depicted in gold pendants and in gold ornaments to be placed on the head of a staff.
caption: Zenú lost wax cast gold earring, AD 800 - San Antonio Museum of Art
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