The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2025

Ear Spool

c. 400–900
hammered gold
Diameter: 3 cm (1 3/16 in.); Overall: 3 cm (1 3/16 in.)
Roberta Holden Bole Fund 1958.192
Location: 233 Mesoamerican and Intermediate Region

Description

Harvard archaeologists excavated these 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.
  • These ear spools were excavated by the Harvard Peabody Museum between 1930 and 1933.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 336
  • Treasures of Peruvian Gold. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 23-April 3, 1966).
    Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 23-April 3, 1966. "Treasures of Peruvian Gold."
  • {{cite web|title=Ear Spool|url=false|author=|year=c. 400–900|access-date=23 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.192