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Figurine Plaque
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineFigurine Plaque, c. 300 BCE–200 CE. Peru, South Coast, Paracas, with modern etched enhancement(?). Hammered and embossed gold-copper alloy; overall: 6.8 x 4.2 cm (2 11/16 x 1 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1940.512
