The Vicús Rattle Dancers
César Bolaños
The Vicús (300 BC–100 AD) was an important for-
mative culture, located in the Piura department on
the northern coast of Perú (Fig. 1). Vicús is charac-
terised by its particular style in ceramics, its icono-
graphy and by the use of copper and gilded copper
in order to create a great variety of artefacts.
Among their ceramic musical instruments we
can find trumpets, whistles and drums, as well as
whistling bottles of one and two sections. With
copper they made solid objects. Sheet copper was
used to make trumpets, but as they did not know
how to weld the unions, they cramped and sealed
the border edges with thread, straw and coal tar in
order to get an air-tight tube. With the same
cramping technique they made big rattles with
wooden handles and bells of different shapes and
sizes, either externally struck or with small pellets
inside. In other cases circular and rectangular
spangles were made in a variety of sizes of gilt or
golden copper sheet that was suspended from
hooks that cramped to other sheets of bigger sizes.
It is necessary to point out that an important
part of known Vicús objects were found by illegal
robbers of pre-hispanic tombs, who in Perú are
called huaqueros. These objects have been sold to
private collections and art galleries. However,
some relevant objects were recovered by scientific
archaeological excavations of tomb no. 11 of the
Vicús culture and have therefore been catalogued;
they form the theme of this paper.
Fifteen years ago, when I started to investigate
musical instruments from Vicús, in the department
of metallic objects of the National Museum of
Anthropology, Archaeology and History (MNAAH),
I found an important number of artefacts which
came from this tomb. It was excavated in 1964 by
José Carlos Casafranca and Carlos Guzmán
Ladrón de Guevara, and the finds are now in the
Vicús collection of that Museum. The objects were
found in Pabur farm, in the Piura department.
In this tomb they found metallic pieces such as
crowns, perforated plates, hooks, sceptres, pellet
and externally struck bells, whose general charac-
teristic was that they all were made of copper
plates.
SPANGLES AND CROWNS
There were crowns of different shapes and similar
styles, but all without exception were folded or flat-
tened and had corroded, forming a crust of greenish
oxide. The peculiarity of these crowns was the pres-
ence of long copper aigrettes and hooks cramped
onto their surfaces, onto which were suspended
spangles of different diameters. These were found
not only on the crowns but also on some golden cop-
per sheets whose shape in outline was that of deer
antlers. In addition there were two fan shaped pieces
with five prolongations (Fig. 2). In this group of
metallic pieces, the crowns were the most significant,
not only because of their size but also on account of
their attached ornaments. Moreover some of these
crowns have the remains internally, of a cover with
thin strips to protect them when worn.
OTHER METALLIC PIECES:
ROUND, RECTANGULAR
AND SQUARE
Together with these crowns I found a variety of sizes
of circular spangles and a large quantity of small
quadrangular and rectangular metallic pieces, all with
two small holes in their upper corners, perhaps for
sewing them to a shirt, socks or to a belt, and, in other
cases for hanging them onto a hook. But the great
majority were circular spangles of different diameters.
BELLS: SHELL AND CONICAL
SHAPED
The bells are of a repoussé shell shape with small
fragments of stone inside. Others look like little
bells but without clappers. They had holes in the
centre at the top for suspension.
SCEPTRES
Finally a group of golden folded copper tubes may
belong to one or two sceptres or to a rhythm stick.
They are all nailed to a wooden stick.
184 César Bolaños
ICONOGRAPHY
In this group of remains three decorative images
were found: a figure of an angular repoussé ser-
pent on one crown; another was found on a scep-
tre tube; another was an anthropomorphic figure
found in many fragments.
When I studied these objects in 1982, I was
particularly interested in the following artefacts:
crowns, sceptres, spangles and bells. Nevertheless
I included the dimensions of all the finds in the
article entitled Research about the Vicús metallur-
gy by Marcela Rios and Enrique Retamozo, a pub-
lication of the review Gaceta Arquelógica Andina,
vol. VII Jul. 1993, no. 23, pp. 33–64, of the Institu-
to Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos (INDEA),
Lima, Perú.
This was not the end of the matter. The wide
variety in size of the spangles surprised me. It is true
that initially the spangles did not seem important to
me, but later on, once I had measured them, I started
to look at them with more attention, because it
seemed to me that their diameters were inscribed
within a determinate angle, akin to the diameters of
the panpipe tubes of the Nasca culture, or how
modern panpipes are made. Following this reason-
ing I put one spangle close to the other, starting with
the bigger one to the smallest. I was surprised to dis-
cover three different including angles, when I
inscribed the diameters of the spangles (Fig. 3).1
Table 1 shows one set of measurements which I
made: It is necessary to explain briefly how I
determined the angles for the spangles and bells. 1:
I measured the diameters of the spangles. 2: I put
one beside the other beginning the sequence with
the largest. 3: I traced two lines, above and below,
tangentially touching all the spangles. 4: When
these two lines cross, they determine an angle. 5: I
found three angles varying by no more than 12
degrees by this method. 6: I determined the series
sizes of the spangles that decorated the dresses and
the crowns of the rattle dancers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
82.5 72.5 64.0 ? ? ? 36.5
Tab 1 Circular spangles in mm (MNAAH, Vicús, tomb 11, specimen 17, measurements taken by the author),
number and diameters in mm. (nos. 4, 5, 6, 8 are missing).
Therefore I concluded that the spangles were
not made in arbitrary sizes, but were designed to
be placed one against another graduating in size,
within a chosen angle. Indeed they were probably
manufactured out of a sheet of golden copper with
the angle already inscribed. I also concluded that
the principle used to decide those diameters could
be the same as that used by the Nasca people for
their ceramic panpipes, where the longer tubes
have larger diameters than the smaller ones.
We must remark that relation between the
length and the diameter of a tube on a Nasca pan-
pipe is governed by the need to achieve an appro-
priate musical sound. However, the diameters of
the spangles do not follow this principle.
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE
FINDS FROM TOMB 11
I propose that these metallic remains were
attached to dresses that were used for ceremonial
or dance purposes. They do not appear to be
appropriate attire for combat because of their
weight. It is likely that the designer of these dress-
es fully intended the movements of the wearer to
produce soft metallic sounds, just as in a metallic
rattle. For this reason I think these dresses could
be called rattle dresses and their wearers rattle
dancers or rattle men. I am also certain that the
designers wanted to take advantage of the inci-
dence of sunlight or moonlight on the mobile
spangles, in order to produce impressive flashes
with the movements of the wearers.
My hypothesis is based on the material described,
and also takes into account some images of the
Moche culture (100–600 AD) (Fig. 4a, Fig. 4b), as
they are known cultural relatives of the Vicús.
1 The spangles will belong to the same set if the ratio of the
sum to the difference of the diameters of two neighbours
are the same (M. Byrne, ed.).
9 10 11 12 13 14
? 28.0 24.0 21.0 16.1 14.1 11.0
 The Vicús Rattle Dancers 185

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOLAÑOS, C. (1980) HOCQUENGHEM, A.M. (1987)

Investigación en el Departamento de Metales Iconografia Mochica. Pontificia Universi-
del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueo- dad Católica del Perú. Fondo Editorial.
logía e Historia (MNAAH). Lima. Lima.
BOLAÑOS, C. (1987) RIOS M./RETAMOZO, E. (1993)
Las antaras Nasca. Instituto Andino de Estudi- “Investigaciónes sobre la metalurgia Vicús”
os Arqueológicos (INDEA). Lima. (Research about the Vicús metallurgy). In
DIEZ-CANSECO NUÑEZ, M. (1993) review Gaceta Arquelógica Andina, vol. VII.
Los metales Vicús de las tumbas del cementerio jul 1993, no. 23, 33–64, a publication of the
de Yecala. Tomos I–II. Memoria para optar el Instituto Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos
Grado de Bachiller en Humanidades con men- (INDEA). Lima.
cion Arqueología. Universidad Católica del
Perú. Lima.
GUZMAN LADRON DE GUEVATRA, C./CASAFRAN-
CA NORIEGA, J. (1964)
Vicús, Informaciones arqueológicas, No.1.
Ediciones de la Comisión Nacional de Cultura.
Casa de la Cultura. Lima.
186 César Bolaños

1. Tumbes
2. Piura
3. Lambayeque
4. La Libertad
5. Ancash
6. Lima
7. Ica
8. Arequipa
9. Moquegua
10. Tacna
11. Cajamarca
12. Amazonas
13. San Martin
14. Huánco
15. Pasco
16. Junin
17. Huancavelica
18. Ayacucho
19. Apurimac
20. Cuzco
21. Puno
22. Loreto
23. Madre de Dios

Fig. 1 Location of the Vicús culture in Perú.

 The Vicús Rattle Dancers 187

Fig. 2 One of two pieces made of gilded copper with five prolongations similar to a fan,
with spangles hung from a hook (Vicús, 300 BC–100 AD), MNAAH, Lima.
 188
César Bolaños

Fig. 3 Drawing of the angle within which the spangles of different diameters (in mm) are inscribed.
 The Vicús Rattle Dancers 189

Fig. 4a Scene on a ceramic artefact of the Moche culture where spangles and ornaments similar to
those used by the Vicús people can be seen. MNAAH.

Fig. 4b Moche-vessel with running warriors. Human figures with spangles and ornaments. MNAAH.
Drawing by Daniel Arendt after a photograph taken by the author.