Cleveland Museum of Art
Butterfly Nose Ornament
- Date
- 150–200 CE
- Medium
- jadeite-albitite?
- Culture
- Central Mexico, Teotihuacán, Classic period
- Department
- Art of the Americas
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 155559
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Near Teotihuacán’s largest palace is a temple ornamented with green-feathered serpents, symbols of the earth’s fertility. Beneath the temple were at least 120 human sacrifices, most men, many warriors, and some wearing greenstone ornaments like these, perhaps a set. The sacrifices may have consecrated the temple or a ruler’s tomb, or both.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener
- Provenance
- (Valetta Swan); James and Florence Gruener, Cleveland, 1965
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