Message #139759

[Bianca]

               






About four inches (ten centimeters) wide, this and other hollow silver necklace pieces with beads inside did double duty as rattles for the 1,500-year-old Moche Lord of Ucupe.

The metallic sounds made by Moche rulers wearing such necklaces and carrying metal rattles would have been an aural status symbol, said archaeologist Steve Bourget. Because of metal's scarcity at that time, "no commoner could ever make this noise."



—Photograph courtesy
Dr. Steve Bourget