The piece probably refers to the gold offering ceremony described in the legend of El Dorado, which occasionally took place at Lake Guatavita.

The Muisca people, also known as the Chibcha,[1] were situated at 9000 ft elevation in the eastern Andes of Colombia near modern day Bogotá, the town of Tunja, and Lake Guatavita.

[1] Muisca art tended to include components that referred back to the raw material used in their own construction; for example, a statue who is depicted to be holding, in pouches, the substance from which it is made.

Local copies of Muisca votive figurines have been found as far away as the Linea Vieja region on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica.

[19] The figures rest on top of an oval-shaped reed raft, which is composed of a triangle-patterned central support structure, with wire coils around the perimeter.

[19] Like most Muisca goldworking, there are no figures-in-the-round; each figure is cast as a flat plaque, adorned on the front side with wire-like details[20] and gold jewelry.

[24] The central figure, the cacique, is naked, seated, and folds his arms over his chest in a W pattern, a common feature in Muisca gold pieces.

[19] He wears a large rectangular nose pendant, adorned with bird heads and trapezoidal decorations, as well as a headdress and possibly a crown.

[33] In 1856, two brothers from Siecha by the names of Joaquín and Bernardino Tovar partially drained a nearby lagoon, and found a votive raft that they associated with the ceremony referred to in the legend of El Dorado.

[33] Nevertheless, through reverse engineering, a group from Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES), in Bogotá, Colombia, recreated the Siecha raft in gold and identified a plausible casting process.

[34] A century later, in 1969, a peasant from Pasca by the name of Cruz María Dimaté found several pieces of gold and ceramics in a cave, and described them to Father Jaime Hincapié Santamaría, a parish priest.

[1] The altitude of the region varied greatly, creating small ecological zones in which one or more resources were lacking in each locale, which encouraged trade.

[36] Barter between the highlands and coast exchanged fish, shells, and gold for coca leaves, chili peppers, and colored feathers.

[39] The process began when the Muisca craftsperson created a wax model in the desired shape of the object, using beeswax harvested from the region.

[47] Just prior to the actual casting, the mould was pre-heated to several hundred degrees to allow the smooth flow of molten gold into all the cracks and details before hardening; it also helped protect against fracture from cooling too fast.

[47] The final step in the casting was to hammer open the mould, revealing a perfect copy of the beeswax figurine, this time in gold.

[50] When the casting was complete, the artisan may have treated the piece with depletion gilding, a technique for increasing the purity of gold on the surface of the object.

[50] There was no effort to fix casting errors, and the surface remained unpolished; charcoal remnants from the mould were left in crevices on the figures.

[50] The offering that contained the Muisca raft was placed in a cave in the side of a hill, known as La Campana, located between Lázaro Fonte and El Retiro streets in the Pasca municipality, Cundinamarca.

[56] Offerings included human gold effigies, ceramics, emeralds, hair, blood, and animal skulls; and were deposited in lakes, caves, and behind waterfalls.

The purpose of the offering was to gain favor with a deity in hopes they will provide healing; or to bless a marriage, harvest, building, or ceremony.

[57] According to Spanish accounts, the offerings were made to gain favor with a deity, and indeed each shrine was associated with a distinct god that heard specific concerns.

Chibchacum, of the Bogotá province, was the god of merchants, goldsmiths, peasants, and wealthy people; Nencatacoa, of drunkenness, weavers, and blanket painters.

[60] Although neither conquistadors nor treasure hunters ever witnessed the ceremony, its legend enticed Europeans,[33] who desired gold to pay for their ships, weapons, and horses, and, they hoped, for personal riches.

Heidi King describes such efforts:[1] In the centuries since the conquest countless lives and great fortunes have been lost in attempts to recover the treasures.

The most serious effort was undertaken at the end of the sixteenth century by a wealthy merchant from Santa Fe de Bogota who, with the help of eight thousand local workmen, cut a great notch—still prominent in the landscape—into the mountain on one side of the lake and lowered the water level by about sixty feet.

Countless gold objects, and other offerings, including an emerald the size of a hen’s egg, were recovered from the edges of the lake bed.