Good day–its even colder—BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Today’s weird item is one of my most weird and is from Peru. I picked this up in a consignment–or resale shops years ago.. It ‘s brass figure with a huge headdress and the word Peru at its feet and a shovel type base. The back is featureless except for a ring for hanging.

So I did some sleuthing and found that it’s an “Incan, Sun God, souvenir, wall plaque,” According to Wikipedia it is considered good luck to hang it in the home and it is a national symbol of Peru.

But I was sure that wasn’t all the story: So more look-ups. According to About.com the Incan religion was very complicated and had many gods, one the most important of which was the Sun God Inti, who was second only to the creator god. I further learned according to Windows on the Universe he was married to Pachamama, the Earth goddess. The inca royal family traced their line down directly from Inti. His main celebration was held on June 20 or 21–the summer solstice.

NOW we know who and what he was but what was the instrument originally used for? So back to Wikipedia: “The Tumi is a sacrificial ceremonial ax distinctly characterized by a semi-circular blade, made of either bronze, copper, gold-alloy etc… During this important religious ceremony (Inti’s June celebration), the High Priest would sacrifice a completely black or white llama. Using a tumi, he would open the animal’s chest and with his hands pull out its” vital organs and “observing those elements he could foretell the future.” Reading further I found that they became a staple for burial objects for important Incans and have been found in many graves. So like a lot of things they evolved into something else. It makes a nice wall hanging and I hope that someone will find it decorative and lucky. PS the hanging is very dull edged–so no danger to any Ilamas out there.

Do you have any interesting objects in your home you’d like to know the history of? I could help.

So that’s my weird object of the day. Stay tuned for one more tomorrow.