Hammering and embossing are the most primitive forms of metalworking and they appear at the beginning of the history of Peruvian metals, but they have maintained their popularity in that country during all periods until the present. It is an archaeological characteristic of the coast of Peru that most copper or bronze objects were cast and that most gold and silver artifacts were hammered to shape. The Peruvians not only hammered flat surfaces but hollow'goblets and even hollow figures of men and animals. These were made in various sections and were joined by solder, an art mastered at a very early period.