Amulet; Nicoya Culture, Costa Rica, 300 - 500 AD.

Amulet; Nicoya Culture, Costa Rica, 300 - 500 A.D.
Jadeite.
In very good state of preservation.
Measurements: 12 x 3 x 1 cm.
Jadeite amulet with double caiman head from the cultural area of Guanacaste-Nicoya, in present-day Costa Rica, dating approximately between 300 and 500 A.D., within the period known as Bagaces. It is a pre-Columbian piece of great technical refinement and strong symbolic load, carefully carved in green jadeite and Puncture with two suspension holes, indicating its use as a personal ornament of prestige or possible ritual object.
The piece represents a double-ended axe or "celt", topped on both sides by caiman heads, a deeply significant animal in the imaginary of the Mesoamerican intermediate area. The caiman was associated with fertile land, water and the structure of the world, conceived in many traditions as a primordial being that sustains or represents the earth's surface. The presence of this animal in jade objects reinforces its cosmological dimension and its link to power and spiritual transformation.
The culture of the Gran Nicoya region, which encompasses northwestern Costa Rica and southwestern Nicaragua, was characterized by intense craft production and a complex network of cultural exchanges between Mesoamerica and South America. During the Bagaces period, local societies experienced a growing social hierarchy and a remarkable development of metallurgy, polychrome ceramics and lapidary, especially in high-value materials such as jade.
Jade was considered one of the most prized materials, not only for its beauty and difficulty to work, but also for its association with water, fertility and supernatural power. Its use was closely linked to the ruling elites and ritual contexts, where it functioned as a status symbol and as an object of mediation with the sacred.