{
"data": {
"id": 119667,
"accession_number": "1940.507",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Spear Thrower, 200 BCE\u2013200 CE. Peru, South Coast, late Paracas or early Nasca style. Bone, hematite, cotton thread, sinew; overall: 5.8 x 2 cm (2 5/16 x 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1940.507",
"current_location": "232 Andean",
"title": "Spear Thrower",
"creation_date": "200 BCE\u2013200 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": -200,
"creation_date_latest": 200,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Peru, South Coast, late Paracas or early Nasca style"
],
"technique": "bone, hematite, cotton thread, sinew",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Art of the Americas",
"collection": "AA - Andes",
"type": "Arms and Armor",
"measurements": "Overall: 5.8 x 2 cm (2 5/16 x 13/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.058,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.02,
"width_inch": 0,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125,
"length": 0.483,
"length_inch": 19,
"length_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312180,
"title": "Art of the Americas",
"description": "Art of the Americas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 19-April 11, 1943).",
"opening_date": "1943-03-19T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312131,
"title": "Art of the Americas",
"description": "Art of the Americas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9, 1945-January 6, 1946).",
"opening_date": "1945-11-09T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 300804,
"title": "Treasures of Peruvian Gold",
"description": "Treasures of Peruvian Gold. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-02-23T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Raymond Henry Norweb [1894-1983] and Emery May Holden Norweb [1895-1984], Cleveland OH, 1940, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1940",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1940",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Spear throwers, also called atlatls, use leverage to propel a spear faster and farther through the air.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Spear throwers improve a spear's range and thrust. The spear was placed against the stone pivot and hurled using the thumb rest, carved as a figure with a skeletal chest, back-bent head, and a severed human head at its rear. This figure, frequent in art, is not well understood, but its appearance here suggests a connection to death. The shaft's carving makes clever use of the bone's marrow cavity.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60743959"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1940.507-spear-thrower"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Ubbelohde-Doering, Heinrich. The Art of Ancient Peru. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1952.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 341",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.507",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.507/1940.507_web.jpg",
"width": "721",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "235528",
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},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.507/1940.507_print.jpg",
"width": "2745",
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"filesize": "4531611",
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"full": {
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"alternate_images": [
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"date_created": "2011-10-17T18:08:22",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "The Norweb Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 119667,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1940-10-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": -200,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "200 BCE\u2013200 CE",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:10:39.751000"
}
}