The original indigenous communities of present-day Costa Rica used stone to produce a variety of implements. Over time, this skill became quite specialized, and accomplished artisans carved pieces of religious or mythological significance to the community. Thus, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures were placed in front of raised dwellings, in plazas, and along roads—strategic locations within settlements that may have served to delineate spaces of power as exercised by community leaders.
Imparted and accumulated knowledge enabled ancient artisans to select the most appropriate type of stone to obtain the forms and designs they desired. They took advantage of nearby sources of raw materials, especially lavas, andesites, and basalts of igneous origin, along with sedimentary sandstones and limestones. Stone heads for wooden staffs and war maces ; ; along with jade and other greenstone ornaments indicated an individual’s social rank according to the number of objects produced, the difficulty in procuring raw materials, and quality of execution. Although most of these objects have appeared in burials, they are thought to have been used to indicate a person’s prestige in both life and death. The skill and creativity of these artisans, as well as the development of technical complexity, allowed each cultural region and period to evolve a distinct sculptural style with different forms, finishes, and materials.
The manufacture of large stone sculptures began sometime between 300 BCE and 300 CE. During this period, a tradition emerged in central and northeastern Costa Rica of carving sculptures inspired by domestic metates (millstones for grinding maize) but augmented by very tall supports and a rich symbolic ornamentation of personages and animals in relief. These objects, called “ceremonial” or “ornamental” metates, are among the most outstanding artistic manifestations in Costa Rican art before the sixteenth century and are found in the different cultural regions of the country. Their number and complexity indicate the presence of specialized sculptors of great artistic skill.
The metates from the country’s Central Region are known as “flying panel metates” for the decorative elements found between their tall supports. They depict scenes with masked personages, possible musicians, and birds holding heads, as well as other animals—most notably felines and crocodiles, creatures thought to be opposing forces in nature . Other animal figures, such as monkeys and long-billed birds, adorn the supports of some examples . Artisans sought a compositional equilibrium between the elements on the supports and those carved on the middle panel.
The northwestern part of the country, known as Guanacaste, is the Costa Rican portion of the Greater Nicoya cultural region, which includes western Nicaragua. Here, ornamental metates have long supports with bas-reliefs on the lower face of the horizontal panel that often depict masked individuals with extravagant headdresses: political or religious leaders in authoritative attire. These metates were used as tomb covers, hence their underside reliefs, and perhaps as seats for important personages, similar to a throne. These artifacts evolved stylistically over time to take the form of an animal figure carved with empty spaces , including felines, coyotes, tapirs, macaws , and even animals now extinct in the area such as the harpy eagle. Metates in feline form popularly called “tiger stones” had a wide territorial distribution, from Costa Rica to Panama, and illustrate the importance of these predators, especially jaguars and pumas, in indigenous belief systems.
In the central part of the country, a sculptural tradition depicting human figures with naturalistic features began around 300 BCE. Some of these objects combine animal and human traits, perhaps representing shamans or religious and healing specialists understood to possess the ability to change into certain animals to carry out their visionary, curative, and defensive activities. Between 800 and 1550 CE, round plate sculptures with feline ornamentation on the lower face of the panel and human or animal (usually feline or monkey) heads along the rim became prevalent in the Central Region. Other prominent objects include zoomorphic metates and slabs or tablets with animals carved on their sides and tops ; the latter pieces may have served as tomb covers or lids.
Statuary from this period between 800 and 1550 CE gives us a good idea of the social stratification present in regional centers of power. Volcanic stone blocks were carved into portrait heads, squatting figures smoking what presumably is tobacco (a plant that may have been used in healing and divinatory acts) ; , and statues of warriors holding axes and trophy heads. These warrior figures may be portraits of specific individuals whose potent bellicosity served an ideological function of intimidation and domination. The “trophy head” cult appeared in earlier periods and suggests that conflict was prevalent in the chiefdoms at the time or that violent ideas were an important tool in the discourse of authority and power. These objects may have been intended to glorify war by disseminating images of the ideal warrior and his expected performance in battle as well as to commemorate stories or myths.
The practice of decapitating enemies and its depiction in stone also occurred in the Greater Chiriquí region of southern Costa Rica and western Panama. A sculpture from the Coto-Brus highlands in Costa Rica consists of a figure wearing a conical helmet and a pendant necklace while holding a trophy head and an axe —an object similar to early human representations from Barriles in the Chiriquí highlands of Panama. One remarkable feature of this sculpture is the necklace with a set of curly-tailed animal figures that echo gold pendants in the Initial Style thought to date between 1 and 500 CE from Colombia to Costa Rica ; . Moreover, an object vaguely reminiscent of a bird with extended wings—a motif characteristic of the Initial Style—appears on the figure’s belt. The manufacture of gold objects in Greater Chiriquí during the Aguas Buenas period (300 BCE–800 CE) has not been reported, but this sculpture, along with another type called “man-on-slave” from Barriles, indicate that such objects were known and obtained.
In the subregion known as Diquís in southeastern Costa Rica, anthropomorphic sculptures with peg bases (for upright support) and pieces carved in the round depicting felines, reptiles, and armadillo-men were developed about a thousand years ago. The human sculptures are flattened, highly stylized, and usually rigidly postured . Some depict warriors holding a trophy head, often with feline characteristics, but there are also captives with their hands tied, reflecting the antagonistic climate that existed between political territories.
Diquís is also noted for unusual artifacts such as stone cylinders known as “barrels,” with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic bas-reliefs on their ends, and stone spheres. The stone spheres are conspicuous for their quantity, perfection, and diversity of size, as well as their long period of production between 400 and 1500 CE. Organized in linear, semicircular, and triangular groups, they were situated within residential and ceremonial areas as well as open plazas. They have also been found on mounds, at the periphery of settlements, and on the sides of access ramps to important residences. Some small spheres with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sculptures were deliberately fragmented. The size of the spheres varies from a few centimeters to 2.6 meters in diameter, and they weigh from a few kilograms to about 25 tons, with finishes ranging from coarsely ground to polished . Gabbroid (gabbro and granodiorite), which appears in the Fila Costeña mountains, is the most common stone used for these spheres, although limestone and sandstone examples also exist. The spheres were probably symbols of rank, power, and ethnicity, as they were only made in a restricted area and located in contexts associated with the most complex constructions. Some isolated spheres may have indicated communal sanctuaries, while groups of them may have been related to the observation of celestial phenomena and natural cycles or calendars.
The stone specialists of the Greater Chiriquí, Central Region and Greater Nicoya cultural regions demonstrated great artistic skill in creating stone works such as metates, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, other statuary, and spheres. These works—their manufacture, formal design, and symbolism—represent the variability in ancient artistic traditions within the present territory of Costa Rica, as well as the high level of specialization achieved by these early complex societies.