059 Inca Gold Llama

The Inca lived along the west coast of South America in what is now principally Peru. The Inca Empire flourished thanks to its dependence on llamas, which powered the Inca’s military society and helped them become very wealthy. This little gold model represents one of these important and highly valued animals.

The absence of horses in the Americas before the Spanish conquest meant that they had no animals that could be ridden. Although they could not be used to transport people, the native llamas were extremely well adapted to living at high altitude and in cold temperatures. The Inca used them as pack animals and for their wool, meat and manure, breeding them by the thousands so they could carry military supplies as their army travelled ever further along the Andes. It is no surprise, therefore, that the llama is celebrated in exquisite models like this.

The model is made entirely of gold, a particularly important material for the Incas. According to Inca myth, silver was the tears of the moon and gold was the sweat of the sun. When the Spanish reached Inca territory in the 1520s they were overwhelmed by the abundance of gold objects and decoration they found there. They wrote accounts of rooms walled with gold and silver, full of precious treasures. Today, however, Inca gold is rare. Much of it was melted down during the Spanish conquest, used for bullion and sent to Spain. Some of it survived, however, like our tough little llama—a tiny, resilient reminder of an extraordinarily effective empire.