Headdress Ornament (c. 300 BCE–200 CE): Art, History and Details

Headdress Ornament (c. 300 BCE–200 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A similar star-shaped metal ornament is present on a human-hair wig from a mummy excavated at the Paracas Necropolis site. The wig has tresses wrapped with colored yarns, and a long headband wrapped many times around the head. The star-shaped ornament is attached to the headband, and a circular metal ornament is attached to the braid.

Object facts

• Title: Headdress Ornament
• Date: c. 300 BCE–200 CE
• Culture: Peru, South Coast, Paracas
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: hammered and embossed gold-copper alloy
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.2 x 4.6 cm (2 1/16 x 1 13/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Andes
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1940.510

A detail from the museum

Tumbaga is an alloy made by blending gold with copper, which may give the gold a rosy hue.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

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.