Reflexiones sobre la producción sicán y chimú de vasos tipo kero y discos en plata: su iconografía y su relación con las miniaturas chimu

Sumptuary gold and silver funerary objects from the Moche (100-800 A.D.), Sicán or Lambayeque (750-1375 A.D.), and Chimú (1200-1450 A.D.) cultures that developed on the northern coast of Peru, have been studied at different moments and from different perspectives: archaeological, technological, ethnological and iconographic. The excavations of Moche and Sicán archaeological elite tombs over the last decades along with interdisciplinary studies on Andean metallurgy have helped to understand the iconography and its context. The huge number of studies on these two cultures contrasts with the lack of documents on elite sumptuary objects from Chimu’s tombs. This article shows through the analysis of the iconographic scenes and icons represented on Chimu´s silver beakers (keros) and discs the iconographic continuities and discontinuities among the three northern metallurgical traditions. This study also allows a better understanding of the relationship of miniatures to full-size objects.