Collection record · Small worlds
Figurine Plaque
The collection record classifies this work as jewelry. It is dated c. 300 BCE–200 CE. Recorded culture or place: Peru, South Coast, Paracas, with modern etched enhancement(?).
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Figurine Plaque
- Date
- c. 300 BCE–200 CE
- Culture / origin
- Peru, South Coast, Paracas, with modern etched enhancement(?)
- Materials and technique
- hammered and embossed gold-copper alloy
- Dimensions
- Overall: 6.8 x 4.2 cm (2 11/16 x 1 5/8 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1940.512
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
This small metal ornament represents a human figure wearing a cap, a tunic decorated with bird images, and a necklace of orange-pink spondylus shell sections. Such necklaces are found in Paracas mummy bundles, and are frequently represented in Paracas embroidered images. Spondylus shell does not grow in the cold water off the coast of Peru, and had to be imported hundreds of miles from what is now Ecuador. Virtually all ancient Peruvian cultures treasured spondylus shell for its color and rarity, and as a symbol of fertility.
FOLLOW THE SOURCE
Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · The Norweb Collection · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
Open the complete museum record View the open-access policyTHE VISITOR BOOK
What caught your eye?
Opening the visitor book…
