Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Eighteen analyses are presented for 12 different Moche copper pedestal cups. Eight of the cups were made from naturally-occurring copper metal ore; the remaining 4 from copper obtained by smelting of complex oxidized ores. The use of both ore types suggests either a matter of convenience or technology in transition. In general, these people possessed a more advanced level of metallurgical technology than their utilization of primitive naturally-occurring copper metal implies.