Ear Ornament (150–200 CE): Art, History and Details

Ear Ornament (150–200 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Near Teotihuacán's largest palace is a small temple gorgeously ornamented with green-feathered serpents, symbols of the earth's fertility. Beneath the temple lie at least 120 human sacrifices, most men, many warriors, and some wearing greenstone ornaments like these, perhaps a set. The sacrifices, apparently laid out to mark the cardinal directions, may have consecrated the temple or a ruler's tomb, or both.

Object facts

• Title: Ear Ornament
• Date: 150–200 CE
• Culture: Central Mexico, Teotihuacán style, Classic period
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: jadeite-albitite(?)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 5.7 cm (2 1/4 in.); Overall: 2.6 cm (1 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1990.264.2

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.