Some Costa Rican stuff...

[Jon Phillips]

These were purchased by my family back in the mid-80's at an estate auction. It was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. I got a couple of shipwreck items as well, but these were among many, many Pre-Columbian artifacts that were available. The previous owner was a well known collector, and he had some of everything...It was seriously like going to an auction at the Smithsonian! The things that were no-sales would have outfitted a decent museum...a couple of things that come to mind were about a 5 foot tall female effigy that was in a crate, but had a fresh break on one of the legs...no sale at a $500 reserve, if I recall correctly...and a Ringling Bros. horse-drawn wagon...with iron bars on each side, and fully painted, and decorated...just too big, and no takers at any price...some other stuff too....I wish I could go back in time with some money and have a re-do now that I have a better perception of what is rare and valuable....Anyway...here are a few pictures of the carvings and pottery.

There was also a box of pot shards, plus a wooden trough, about 3 foot long, that was conserved, and has the form of a dugout canoe, but thicker at the bottom, and not nearly wide enough...so not sure what it was used for....I don't have pics of those...The wooden object is buried in a closet...

Pottery:





The old "phallic symbol with a baby turtle on it" pot leg trick:









Hardstone carving and bowls...listed in the auction catalog as "jade" but probably not....













Volcanic looking rock carvings:































Supposedly a mano stone:



Not sure of this one...It's too symmetric for a grinding stone, so maybe a weapon or a ceremonial piece:







Some random things from other auctions and sales, etc....

 

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[rock]

#31 is most likely a type of Pestle kinda like a roller pestle. The rest I have no clue due to the fact I have no knowledge of the area they come from. Nice collection, rock

 

[monsterrack]

Some of the items look to be Tianio style items and the items that are said to be Jade could be a type of jadite, it is very common in Haiti and Costa Rica. The long item would make a great skull breaker. Very nice stuff

 

[joshuaream]

The pestle probably went to a specific type of metate found in Costa Rica. Google Costa Rican Metate and you'll see the ceremonial ones. Like fine china, they were intended for use, but probably not daily use by average folk.

Overall it looks like a lot of great pieces from mostly the northern part of the country, but you have some classic Nicoyan or Pacific Coast items, as well as some Atlantic coast items. It fits well with the description of the original collector and many of the older Pre-Colombian collections I've seen over the years.

Wealthy families (Lilly, Peabody, Heye, etc.) used to hire archaeologists to go build collections for them, and the archaeologists have to take time to sail down to a specific country, work with locals, and spend several weeks out in the field collecting pieces. Very much an Indiana Jones style expedition. The families would typically front a small amount of money to get the expedition going, and the have first choice to buy on everything that came back. If they paid upfront, the diggers wouldn't have as much incentive to go find untouched sites. The archaeologists would usually have rights to collect and sell misc. pieces that didn't fit the quality that the original collector charged them with collecting. In this case they probably wanted gold, jade, the ceremonial metates, and fine examples of Nicoyan pottery (the upper most piece in the first picture, only in complete condition.)

The last picture, the three heads are probably from Mexico.

The wooden trough you describe as canoe like sounds like a dough bowl. If it's ancient, it's a rare find, but it could just be historic or antique since they have been used non-stop from thousands of years ago through today in many countries. Most cultures that use these large metates also have wooden troughs or squared bowls that are used to hold the ground up corn. One of the big differences between Mexico and Central America and the US was how they processed corn. Our groups frequently dried it out, ground it up and made breads with the flour, and the metates and pestles are different. Most of the groups in Mesoamerica dried the corn, and then cooked it first with lime, and then ground while wet. It made a soupy dough, which was then cooked.

Probably too much information, but here is a link on how they processed corn. This was really the secret to large population densities in Mexico and other areas vs what we have in the US. Cahokia and Etowah probably peaked at population because they couldn't grow enough food. Many sites in Mexico and South had large populations in smaller areas. Corn processed like this provides far more calories and nutrients in a digestible form, and an equal sized field can support far more people. What happens when you eat regular corn? Your body simply can't process it, and it passes through as waste.

Nixtamalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Jon Phillips]

Thanks guys!!

I'll dig out the wooden piece at some point and take some pics.

 

[jamey]

got to love it when joshuaream chimes in

 

[Jon Phillips]

got to love it when joshuaream chimes in

Yep!

One of the reasons I love this site!! Plenty of folks with good information, and a passion for the subject!

 

[manzanita]

Nice pottery and effigies! The two rocks are a type of pestle. The first is used vertically in a mortar while the second us used on its side in a metate! Great stuff!

 

[Jon Phillips]

Thanks!