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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 this 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
131817
label
Ornament from Sitio Conte: Small Plaque
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
131817
contentType
object
title
Ornament from Sitio Conte: Small 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 this 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
c. 400–500
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60778918
genreSpecific
Metalwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 10.5 x 11.3 cm (4 1/8 x 4 7/16 in.)
cul
Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century
accession
1954.39
Source extras
tec
hammered gold
tombstone
Ornament from Sitio Conte: Small Plaque, c. 400–500. Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century. Hammered gold; overall: 10.5 x 11.3 cm (4 1/8 x 4 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1954.390
collection
AA - Intermediate Region
citations
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
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:47:42.265000
sourceId
131817
dept
Art of the Americas
coll
AA - Intermediate Region
med
hammered gold
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
f7513951bb5b3537