What the Conquerors Missed

Montezuma, Aztec Emperor of Mexico, is said to have sighed: "The Christians must have a strange disease which only gold can cure." Most jewelry from the era before Columbus went to cure that disease--nearly all of it melted down for shipment to Spain as bullion. The few surviving objects were mostly buried deep in ancient tombs. Last week Mexico's Institute of Anthropology and History announced the discovery of 200 prehistoric gold ornaments in Oaxaca. In Brooklyn, the museum of art opened a small, comprehensive show of pre-Columbian gold, silver and jade from the Americas.

One of the Brooklyn show's best things--a molded gold flask (see cut)--was made by the cire-perdue (lost wax) method, which the ancient Egyptians--and Benvenuto Cellini--also used. The flask was modeled in wax, then covered with clay. When the clay was baked, the wax melted and was drawn off. Molten gold was then poured into the baked clay mold.

Other notable items: a delicately carved jade burial mask designed to fit over a mummy's face; a breastplate with three leaping, snarling jaguars; a gold flute on which two baby lizards crawled; a toothpick-size silver spoon with a tiny monkey perched on the handle--designed to scoop wax out of a Peruvian aristocrat's ears.

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