Ornament with Maya glyph

This jade pendant found in the Atlantic region of Costa Rica was likely reworked from a larger piece produced in the Maya area. While greenstone objects were made in Central and Northern Costa Rica starting as early as 500 BCE, a practice that continued until around 800 CE, the nearest known source specifically of jadeite is in the region of the Motagua River in Guatemala. The presence of Maya glyphic elements incised on the surface of this one indicates that it traveled a long distance as an artifact, rather than as raw material.

Artists in ancient Costa Rica took the Maya object and rotated it 90 degrees counterclockwise from its original orientation and then drilled in the biconical holes. Once re-oriented to its original state, the signs (originally incised into the jade ornament in a style belonging to the Early Classic Maya period) are more easily identified. A skull occupies the majority of the space. The large central hole, drilled through the ornament, replaces the eye socket of the skull and echoes the void left in the eye’s absence. The skull faces to the left, its prominent jaw marked by two rows of teeth. Above the top row of teeth, a small skeletal nose gives way to a sloping forehead, and on the right side of the skull, opposite the nose, scalloped edges demarcate the occipital bone and the curvature of the skull, paralleled by the nearby scalloped edges of the jade ornament.

Below the skull, a small pattern of curved lines and dots, now interrupted and separated from the rest of the original content by this reworking, originally alluded to a watery surface on which the skull found itself. Resting atop the skull are at least two glyphic elements: a twisted, interlaced element likely representing the Maya glyph WAY, and two rectangular, torchlike elements protruding at 45-degree angles from this sign that give the reading TAJ; the combination of these signs alludes to the name K’inich Taj Wayib found in other Early Classic Maya contexts that refer to a supernatural figure and possibly a historical ruler. Other elements present in the scene—a small fragmentary sign above the WAY glyph, as well as a circle and dotted curved element to the right of the skull—likely contributed to the reading of this message but have had their legibility affected by the drilled holes and the removal of this section from what was once a larger piece, surely a celt. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know what the rest of the scene or glyphic text might have depicted.

This object, like others in this collection, speaks to the reach of trade networks and the exchange of ideas in the first millennium CE. Made of enduring and highly valued greenstone, ornaments like this one were worth transporting and passing down over time.

Catherine Nuckols, Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Fellow, and Amanda Suárez Calderón, Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie Resident Scholar, 2025

References

Graham, Mark Miller. "Mesoamerican Jade and Costa Rica." In Jade in Ancient Costa Rica, edited by Julie Jones, pp. 39-57. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, 54-55.

Mora Marín, David. "Documenting a fragmentary Maya jade belt plaque from Costa Rica." Mesoamerican Linguistics at UNC, August 9, 2017. https://davidmm.web.unc.edu/2017/08/09/documenting-a-fragmentary-maya-jade-belt-plaque-from-costa-rica/

Further Readings

McEwan, Colin, and John Hoopes, eds. Pre-Columbian Art from Central America and Colombia at Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2021.

Mora Marín, David, Dorie Reents-Budet, and Virginia Fields. "Costa Rica and the Maya: Prestige Goods and International Relations." Trading Spaces (2017): 181.

Stuart, David. “The Beginnings of the Copan Dynasty: A Review of the Hieroglyphic and Historical Evidence.” Understanding Early Classic Copan, 2004, 224-225.