Poporo Calima Jaguar

Gold poporo representing a jaguar and pin
Calima, Yotoco period, 200 BC- 1200 AD

Sheet gold hammered on a mould, embossed and assembled with nails.

The hills of the upper- and mid-Calima River region and the flat part of the Cauca valley in Valle del Cauca Department are home to remains of settlements dating back almost 9,000 years. Funerary regalia from the Yotoco Period (200 B.C. to 1200 A.D.) relates the chieftain who wore it to feline figures. In the years between 200 B.C. and 1200 A.D., the Yotoco societies living in the Calima and Cauca valleys altered the way they expressed their world in material form. Emphasis during this period was placed on making exquisite gold objects, mainly for funerary purposes, and this became one of the principal ways they expressed their social relationships, their ideology, and social differences.