Pre-Columbian, Central America, Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya region, ca. 250 to 800 CE. An incredible celt pendant of tall and slender form that is hand-carved from mottled sage-hued jade with light-green and forest-green inclusions. The elaborate accessory displays a standing anthropomorphic avian creature with hands folded atop the abdomen, a thick beak drooping in front of piercing eyes, sizable ear spools, and a plateaued forehead surmounted by a seated lizard bearing a frilled top comb. A biconically drilled suspension hole is situated laterally through the neck to enable its wearability. Size: 1" L x 0.75" W x 7.1" H (2.5 cm x 1.9 cm x 18 cm)
The value of jade in the Pre-Columbian world lay in its symbolic power; scholars believe its color was associated with water and vegetation. Costa Rica, along with Mesoamerica, is one of the two regions where jade was extensively carved in the Pre-Columbian world. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting anthropomorphic deities or animals such as birds, monkeys, snakes, crocodiles, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.
Provenance: private Dallas, Texas, USA collection, originally acquired in Costa Rica from 1997 - 1998; ex-private Costa Rican collection
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#185700
Condition
Professionally cleaned in modern times, otherwise intact and excellent with great surface smoothness and wonderful preservation to finer details.