2-728-738 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Finial with Bird (Harpy Eagle with Royal Flycatcher Crest?), 400-1000. Unique to Colombia's Sinú region are gold finials with sculptural images at right angles to thimble-like caps; each cap fit over the end of a staff, an emblem of rank. The bird on this finial has the hooked beak of a raptor—perhaps the harpy eagle, the "king" of tropical forests and one of the most impressive eagles in the world. The enormous crest, however, may be inspired by the Royal Flycatcher, a smaller bird that fans its unique, brilliantly coloured crest during mating. Sinú animal imagery is under-studied but likely relates to beliefs about the cosmos. For instance, contemporary natives attribute importance to birds because they have the capacity to move among different environments (air, land, water). Thus, they may have been regarded as mediators among levels of the universe.