The Moche were a people who created one of the most accomplished societies of the pre-Columbian Americas. Centered about the Moche River Valley on the North coast of Peru, from approximately 100-800 AD the Moche flourished, building monumental pyramids, vast irrigation systems, and creating new forms of metallurgy, ceramics, and textiles. Metal was an ideological symbol of power, and Moche metal workers experimented with many materials, creating a wide variety of metalworking techniques. Moche metal workers were the most sophisticated and creative metal artisans of the pre-Columbian Andes, and subsequent Andean societies relied on their technological achievements

Eight metal objects of the Moche IV period, excavated by Donnan and Mackey in 1978, have been chemically and structurally analyzed to understand their construction and possible ritual uses. The gold content of several objects indicates a deliberate addition of gold to the alloy, however in amounts insufficient to alter the surface color of the objects. Lead-isotope analysis shows that local copper ore sources were used in the object production.

Two unique objects, a metal staff and tumi (ritual knife) have been subject to detailed structural characterization. The fact that these artifacts are constructed in unique ways and intact increases the likelihood that these objects were ritually important. It was also determined that this particular tumi could not have been used as an actual cutting tool, indicating its ritual importance over practical use. Overall, these objects increase our understanding of Moche metallurgy in their terminal period.