Balance

Item number Sf703 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Smoothly finished, rectangular bone balance with two sets of seven punctuated and recessed circles on both of the wide, flat sides. Traces of red pigment remain on one of the end circles. Each of the short, skinny ends has a hole drilled with fragments of fibre twine in them. One hole is drilled through the width of the bar in the very centre. The two other holes are symmetrically placed at the ends and run obliquely from one narrow edge to the adjacent narrow edge.

History Of Use

The balance bar from a scale. Ancient scales had several forms. A complete example from the chincha valley has two shallow copper pans attached to the ends of the bone bar. Another type has rectangular nets suspended from the balance bar by cords attached to their corners. The scale with nets may have been used for weighting feathers.

Narrative

Pre-Conquest, before 1532 C.E.

Item History

  • Made in Peru before 1532
  • Collected between 1949 and 1966
  • Owned by Anonymous before May 4, 1981
  • Received from Anonymous (Donor) on May 4, 1981

What

Name
Balance
Identification Number
Sf703
Type of Item
balance
Material
bone, cotton fibre and pigment
Manufacturing Technique
cut, smoothed, spun, plied and drilled
Overall
height 0.4 cm, width 8.6 cm, depth 1.1 cm

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
Peru

Who

Culture
Andes
Previous Owner
Anonymous
Received from
Anonymous (Donor)

When

Creation Date
before 1532
Collection Date
between 1949 and 1966
Ownership Date
before May 4, 1981
Acquisition Date
on May 4, 1981

Other

Condition
good
Accession Number
0711/0205
This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.5 Canada License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing [email protected].

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