Figural Pendant with Two Bird Heads300–700 CE

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Stonework from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean Coast

Title: Figural Pendant with Two Bird Heads
Culture: Caribbean Watershed
Place Made: Costa Rica
Date Made: 300–700 CE
Medium: Jadeite
Dimensions: 3 3/4 × 1 7/8 × 5/16 in. (9.53 × 4.76 × 0.79 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser
Accession Number: M.2016.334.8
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Using drilling, string-sawing, incising, and polishing, a skilled lapidary artist created this openwork pendant of a headless anthropomorphic figure with two inward-facing birds on top, pecking at where the head would be. They may represent vultures, carrion-eating birds associated with death and decomposing flesh. For the Bribri, a contemporary Indigenous culture living in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, King vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) in particular help carry the souls of the deceased to the afterworld.

This pendant lacks the telltale tapering shape that would indicate it was carved from a repurposed celt. Instead, the consistent thickness and lack of a septum on the back suggest that it was carved as a pendant from the outset.

Julia Burtenshaw

2024

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Stonework from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean Coast

Title: Figural Pendant with Two Bird Heads
Culture: Caribbean Watershed
Place Made: Costa Rica
Date Made: 300–700 CE
Medium: Jadeite
Dimensions: 3 3/4 × 1 7/8 × 5/16 in. (9.53 × 4.76 × 0.79 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser
Accession Number: M.2016.334.8
Classification: Stone
Collecting Area: Art of the Ancient Americas
Curatorial Notes: Using drilling, string-sawing, incising, and polishing, a skilled lapidary artist created this openwork pendant of a headless anthropomorphic figure with two inward-facing birds on top, pecking at where the head would be. They may represent vultures, carrion-eating birds associated with death and decomposing flesh. For the Bribri, a contemporary Indigenous culture living in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, King vultures (Sarcoramphus papa) in particular help carry the souls of the deceased to the afterworld.

This pendant lacks the telltale tapering shape that would indicate it was carved from a repurposed celt. Instead, the consistent thickness and lack of a septum on the back suggest that it was carved as a pendant from the outset.

Julia Burtenshaw

2024