{"it":{"id":"W11A21","kind":"artifact","sub":"Disputed","name":"Quimbaya artifacts (Tolima/Quimbaya fliers) (= AA Peruvian/Colombian gold jets)","place":"Ica","mat":"tumbaga (gold-copper), lost-wax","dims":"figures ~5-7.5 cm long","loc":"Museo del Oro, Bogota (100+ figures); Museo de America Madrid (122 objects of Quimbaya…","acc":"n/a","find":"Quimbaya Treasure 433 objects found 1890 Quindio; 1891 gift to Spain","flag":"genuine ancient (aircraft reading disputed)","src":[100,143,144],"lat":-14.065,"lon":-75.729,"tags":["Disputed"],"sum":"In 1949 the British Museum registered a small gold figure from Colombia. It is 4 centimetres high and 3.5 wide, cast by the lost-wax method, with flat wings, a tail standing upright and a blunt head. The register written that year reads simply: \"Gold fish, with detailed fins. Quimbaya.\"\n\nPieces like it are now known as the Quimbaya planes or gold flyers. The museum dates its figure broadly to between AD 1 and 900, and today files it under Early Tolima rather than Quimbaya. It was collected in Colombia by Sir Charles des Graz and bought from Sir Sydney Burney.\n\nWhat catches the modern eye is the tail. It rises upright like the tail fin of a jet, and the side wings are flat and triangular, which is why the figure gets compared to an aircraft.\n\nThe museum's own description is the mainstream reading: a zoomorphic pendant that might depict a fish-like fantastic creature with detailed fins. A fish's tail fin stands upright too. The aircraft reading still circulates, but no pilots, engines or full-size craft have turned up with the pendants.\n\nWhat creature did the goldsmiths of Tolima have in mind?","why":"The museum reads a fish-like creature; the upright tail keeps the plane reading alive.","nfacts":4,"nsrc":3,"yt":"Compare with the full Quimbaya animal corpus.","rel":["W11A03"],"hook":"The British Museum's gold 'plane' is 4 cm high. Its 1949 register calls it a gold fish, with detailed fins.","date":"c. AD 500-1000"},"S":{"100":["Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"],"143":["en.wikipedia.org","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quimbaya_artifacts"],"144":["doi.org","https://doi.org/10.2307/278150"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A21","alias":["ART007"],"ms":[{"a":"Quimbaya_Treasure_objects","v":"433","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"1890","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M071","s":["W11S60"],"c":"Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"},{"a":"objects_in_Museo_de_America","v":"122","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M072","s":["W11S60"],"c":"Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"},{"a":"figure_length","v":"5-7.5","u":"cm","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M073","s":["W11S60"],"c":"Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"},{"a":"poporo_mass","v":"777","u":"g","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M074","s":["W11S60"],"c":"Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","v":"tumbaga (gold-copper alloy)","b":"S","s":["W11S60"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"museum_accession","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"},{"a":"find_circumstances","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA174","a":"Depict aircraft/jets","who":"Ancient Aliens 2009 segment","main":"Stylised birds, insects, fish, bats","ms":"W11S60","st":"contradicted","n":"Peruvian/Colombian gold \"jets\" are the Quimbaya/Tolima figures; merged.","nl":"1"},{"id":"AA086","a":"Model aircraft","who":"popular AA literature/TV","main":"Stylised animals (insects, fish, birds); Bruhn 1970 Am. Antiquity on Quimbaya","ms":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quimbaya_artifacts ; https://doi.org/10.2307/278150","st":"unresolved","n":"status from artifacts row; no new lab rows this batch","nl":1}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Depict aircraft/jets","mainstream_reading":"Stylised birds, insects, fish, bats","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient (aircraft reading disputed)","current_location":"Museo del Oro, Bogota (100+ figures); Museo de America Madrid (122 objects of Quimbaya Treasure)","find_circumstances":"Quimbaya Treasure 433 objects found 1890 Quindio; 1891 gift to Spain","claimant":"Ancient Aliens 2009 segment","status":"contradicted","dimensions":"figures ~5-7.5 cm long","material":"tumbaga (gold-copper), lost-wax","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"n/a","b":"S","s":["W11S60"]},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S60","t":"Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"},{"id":"S0593","t":"en.wikipedia.org","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quimbaya_artifacts"},{"id":"S0074","t":"doi.org","u":"https://doi.org/10.2307/278150"},{"id":"VW11A21-4","t":"British Museum collection object Am1949,14.2","u":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1949-14-2"},{"id":"VW11A21-5","t":"Projet 22: winged zoomorphic objects of South America","u":"https://www.projet22.fr/histoire/mesoamerique/objets-zoomorphiques-ailes-d-amerique-du-sud.html"}],"qs":["Some of these figures seem to have an upright tail fin. What were the goldsmiths actually looking at?","If you only had the object and no expert label, would you call it a bird, a fish or a plane? What does that say about how we read the past?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Museo_de_Am%C3%A9rica_Quimbaya_treasure_02.jpg/1280px-Museo_de_Am%C3%A9rica_Quimbaya_treasure_02.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_de_Am%C3%A9rica_Quimbaya_treasure_02.jpg","title":"Museo de América Quimbaya treasure 02.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Unknown","cap":"Golden statuette from the so-called «Quimbaya Treasure», a collection of 200 golden objects (500-1000 AD) given to Spain as a gift by the Columbian government i"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Poporo_quimbaya.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poporo_quimbaya.jpg","title":"Poporo quimbaya.jpg","lic":"CC BY 2.5","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5","by":"Turista Perene","cap":"Quimbaya poporo."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Seated_Figure_MET_DP104850.jpg/1280px-Seated_Figure_MET_DP104850.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seated_Figure_MET_DP104850.jpg","title":"Seated Figure MET DP104850.jpg","lic":"CC0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en","by":"Unknown","cap":"Quimbaya; Figure; Ceramics-Sculpture"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"Museo del Oro","h":"Held at","s":[204]},{"v":"c. AD 500-1000","h":"Date","s":[237]},{"v":"few cm","h":"Recorded dimensions","s":[237]},{"v":"Tumbaga gold","h":"Made of","s":[237]},{"v":"Museo del Oro","h":"Held at: Museo del Oro, Bogotá [specific pieces/acc. not found]","s":[237]}],"hs":{"204":["Wikipedia Quimbaya artifacts","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quimbaya_artifacts&oldid=1369620277"],"237":["en.wikipedia.org","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quimbaya_artifacts"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A21.webp","w":1280,"h":1920,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Museo_de_Am%C3%A9rica_Quimbaya_treasure_02.jpg/1280px-Museo_de_Am%C3%A9rica_Quimbaya_treasure_02.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}