The metalwork of Pre-Columbian America has long fascinated scholars and the public alike. In addition to the sheer allure of gold, this attraction is exacerbated by the extraordinary technical skill that underpins many of these artefacts, as well as their mesmerising iconography, which evokes a rich symbolic world and an appreciation of metals that goes beyond their material worth. Most of these objects were made for ritual use. The lack of iron smelting before European contact, and the fact that bronze did not trigger the revolution in warfare and transportation witnessed in the Old World, add to the special character of American metalwork. As such, it is not surpising that some of the most inspiring pioneering work that combined technical studies of material culture with well-grounded anthropological thinking was based on Andean metalwork.

At the same time, and despite notable exceptions, traditional research on Pre-Columbian metalwork has been either too broad and generalising, or too narrowly focused on uncontextualised, special objects. New work is beginning to show the tantalising potential of high-resolution studies that integrate the technical with the archaeological, addressing issues of technology, symbolism and power associated to the manufacture and use of metals in specific contexts. These renewed efforts, together with our pilot studies, demonstrate that we now have the methods, materials and intellectual frameworks to take the study of Pre-Columbian metalwork beyond a narrow appreciation of their technical sophistication or a somewhat atemporal fascination with their symbolic appeal. Site-based and regional studies are the key to understand technologies and their interplays with environmental and political contexts.

In collaboration with the the Museo del Oro in Bogota, the British Museum in London and other institutions, we are making efforts to characterise different sociotechnical traditions as manifest in their metalwork. Our work involves science-based analyses or metal artefacts and production remains, together with a consideration of contextual data, associated materials and ethnographic and historical information.  A core focus of our current research is the evolution of different technological traditions in present-day Colombia, but we are also engaged in research ranging from Pre-Inca sites in the Andes to colonial-period Jamestown in Virginia.

Various strands of this project have received funding from the British Academy, European Union FP6 and FP7, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, and AHRC.