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Source Description
Harvard archaeologists excavated this and seven other ornaments 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 a large chest plaque and a rod-shaped ear ornament. 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
130039
label
Pectoral (Chest Plaque)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
130039
contentType
object
title
Pectoral (Chest Plaque)
description
Harvard archaeologists excavated this and seven other ornaments 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 a large chest plaque and a rod-shaped ear ornament. 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.
date
400–900
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60757121
genreSpecific
Metalwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 25.1 x 26.7 cm (9 7/8 x 10 1/2 in.)
cul
Intermediate Region, Panama, Conte style, 5th-10th Century
accession
1952.459
Source extras
tec
gold alloy
tombstone
Pectoral (Chest Plaque), 400–900. Intermediate Region, Panama, Conte style, 5th-10th Century. Gold alloy; overall: 25.1 x 26.7 cm (9 7/8 x 10 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, Mrs. Albert S. Ingalls, with additions from the John L. Severance Fund, 1952.459
collection
AA - Intermediate Region
findSpot
Sitio Conte, Panama
didYouKnow
Panning for gold was viewed as a sacred activity among the ancient inhabitants of Costa Rica and Panama.
citations
citation
<em>Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology</em>, Cocle, Vol. 7.
page_number
fig. 247, no. 16
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 381
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 294
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>1967.
page_number
No. 237
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 294
citation
GENTILLE, Thomas. [Step by Step Jewelry.]<em> Jewellery. A Complete Introduction to the Craft of Jewellery</em>. London: Evans Bros, 1973.
page_number
p. 35
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 398
citation
Hearne, Pamela, and Robert J. Sharer. <em>River of Gold--Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte</em>. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1992.
page_number
p. 22-31
citation
Townsend, Richard F., and Anthony F. Aveni. <em>The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes. </em>Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1992.
page_number
p. 220
citation
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page_number
no. 109, p. 98, 220
citation
Jones, Julie. <em>Art of Pre-Columbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection.</em> [Place of publication not identified]: Metropolitan Mus Of Art, 2012.
citation
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. 336-337
citation
Bergh, Susan E. "'The Art of Those Who Lived Here Before the White Man Came': Collecting the Ancient Americas at the Cleveland Museum of Art." In <em>Collecting the “Other Americas”: Ancient Americas Collections in American Art Museums, </em>edited by Victoria I. Lyall, and Ellen Hoobler, 67- 82. Denver, Colorado: Mayer Center for Ancient and Latin American Art at the Denver Art Museum, 2025.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70-71, fig. 6
creditline
Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, Mrs. Albert S. Ingalls, with additions from the John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:42:39.589000
sourceId
130039
dept
Art of the Americas
coll
AA - Intermediate Region
med
gold alloy
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
be23e2206b6c6056