A Costa Rican Jadeite Bird-Celt Pendant, Early Classic Period, ca. 100 - 600 CE Sculpture - Architectural Melbourne2000 Beaver Galleries

Melbourne2000 Beaver Galleries

Carved from a single piece of banded alabaster

These earrings have been meticulously restored with modern 14K gold posts

as is to be expected from the hand-polishing process used in the fabrication

’ This is no doubt because Dionysos is credited with giving man the gift of wine

A Costa Rican Jadeite Bird-Celt Pendant, Early Classic Period, ca. 100 - 600 CE Sculpture - Architectural Melbourne2000 Beaver GalleriesMany 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 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