Andean Mother Egg Stone Carving

In Peruvian tales from the records of the first Spanish conquistadors, Creator begs Sun to make people so as to populate the earth. Sun throws three eggs down to earth: the chiefs (men) are born of the golden egg, their wives (women) of the silver one and the ordinary folk emerge from the copper egg since copper represents mortality: it tarnishes and oxydizes, and is subject to change, deterioration and death. Source: Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia Edited by Jeffrey Quilter and John W. Hoopes.