The following contribution will show the importance of artefacts and of "material culture" in the case of religious communication in the Andes during colonial times. It investigates the transcultural function of ecclesiastic silver objects as a part of the conversion of the indigenous population. The object produced their meaning as transcultural media not only through iconography, but also due to allocations to their material. These allocations were very often invisible, but part of knowledge and memories of indigenous and European people. The perception of the information that was communicated by the objects was more a sensory one than cognitive. The approach to use allocations to the material as well as iconography opens new ways of interpreting material culture.El objetivo de esta contribución es mostrar la importancia de artefactos y de la "cultura material" para la comunicación religiosa en los Andes coloniales. En particular se investiga la función transcultural de objetos religiosos de plata en la conversión de la población indígena. Los objetos producen su significado como medio transcultural no solamente a través de la iconografía, sino por cualidades que se atribuyen al material mismo. Estas atribuciones no son directamente visibles, sino parte implícita de los conocimientos y memorias sensoriales indígenas y europeos. Es significativo para este medio el hecho de que la recepción de la información comunicada se realiza de forma más sensorial y menos cognitiva.