id:			135161
accession number:	1958.191
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.191
updated:		2022-06-10 18:37:48.717000

Ear Spool, c. 400-900. Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century. Hammered gold; diameter: 3.1 cm (1 1/4 in.); overall: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Roberta Holden Bole Fund 1958.191

title:				Ear Spool
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 400-900
creation date earliest:		400
creation date latest:		900
current location:		233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region
creditline:			Roberta Holden Bole Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century
technique:	hammered gold
department:	Art of the Americas
collection:	AA - Intermediate Region
type:		Metalwork
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Diameter: 3.1 cm (1 1/4 in.); Overall: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	These ear spools were excavated by the Harvard Peabody Museum between 1930 and 1933.
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 


digital description: 


wall description: 
Harvard archaeologists excavated the eight ornaments in this case from several burials at Sitio Conte, a cemetery famous for its lavish graves of powerful chieftains. The young man buried in Grave 26 was such a chief. His status was stunningly memorialized by 21 human companions and 475 objects, many of them personal ornaments made of gold, including the large chest plaque (no. 2) and the rod-shaped ear ornament (no. 3) shown here. The creature on the chest plaque, found close to the chief’s body, has reptile claws and perhaps the head crest of an iguana. Its meaning is unknown but perhaps, as in later periods, reptilian imagery and the warm gleam of gold linked rulers with the sun’s creative force.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: P. 336
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.191/1958.191_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.191/1958.191_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.191/1958.191_full.tif