Inca

A trip across time along a golden labyrinth leading to the birth of pre-Columbian civilizations. More than 250 masterpieces from the most important museums of Peru reveal the mastery and the skill of the pre-Columbian goldsmiths of the Central Andes, as well as how gold forged the belief, the rituals, the earthly and heavenly spheres, and the way of representing the political and the religious. The force of unknown symbols, represented by the finds pictured in this book, leads to the understanding of the spirituality of these ancient peoples. The mystic dimension of life and death lived through a deep relation with the gods is evoked by the outstanding images which picture their connection with the afterlife. Inca: Origin and Mysteries of the Golden Civilization highlights the tie with nature, focusing on the contrast between power and submission, sea and mountains, and earth and sky, without forgetting the importance of the Sun and the Moon in the idea and perception of the universe.

Paloma Carcedo de Mufarech, a scholar and an expert of pre-Columbian art, received a degree in the history of art at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid (Spain) and specialized in Latin American and Caribbean studies and in museology at New York University. She teaches prehispanic and colonial art at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima.