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With its grinning mouth and long, protruding tongue, the face embossed on this fragmentary ornament resembles linear images painted on mummy masks and woven on doublecloth tunics and mantles. Both painted mummy masks and doublecloth garments are most often found in the Ica Valley, a short distance south of the Paracas Peninsula. The ornament's original function is uncertain.

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Details

  • Title: Ornament
  • Date Created: c. 300 BC-AD 100
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 8.8 x 4.8 cm (3 7/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
  • Provenance: Raymond Henry Norweb [1894-1983] and Emery May Holden Norweb [1895-1984], Cleveland OH, 1940, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Type: Jewelry
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.513
  • Medium: hammered and embossed gold-copper alloy
  • Fun Fact: <em>Tumbaga</em> is an alloy made by blending gold with copper, which may give the gold a rosy hue.
  • Department: Art of the Americas
  • Culture: Peru, South Coast, Ica Valley?, Paracas, c. 300 BC-AD 100
  • Credit Line: The Norweb Collection
  • Collection: AA - Andes
  • Accession Number: 1940.513

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