A Costa Rican Jadeite Bird-Celt Pendant, Early Classic Period, ca. 100 - 600 CE

Many bird-form pendants of Costa Rica feature a lower section shaped like a workaday celt or ax. The stone celt of teardrop shape was the common working tool in the ancient Americas, and in some instances the shape itself took on greater, perhaps even sacred, significance. Finely carved in a translucent blue-green jadeite, the lower part of this pendant is an example of how the celt shape was integrated into prized personal ornaments. At the top of the pendant, the bird aspects are stylized in a presentation known in greater detail from other jade pendants. Costa Rican bird pendants fall into given groups based on style and imagery, but individual differences also characterize and distinguish them one from the other. Such pendants conveyed symbolic power onto the wearer, and several lines of evidence suggest that these valued objects passed down for generations and were traded widely as luxury goods. cf: Clark, John E., and Michael Blake The Power of Prestige: Competitive Generosity an