**Originally Listed At $2000**

Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya, ca. 250 to 800 CE. Wow! An incredible jadeite celt, intricately carved and string-cut with three figures: an expressive, perhaps transformative avian shaman figure with two serpents extending below. The bird-man presents an expressive visage with a long pointed beak flanked by partially drilled, wide open round eyes. His body crouches atop the serpentine creature below with his hands and feet well delineated, and he wears a tiered, turban-like headdress with incised striations to indicate the wrappings. The bicephalic serpent presents with two heads with round eyes and slit mouths at the bottom and a long undulating, u-shaped body adorned by zigzag motifs as well as periodic divots along the sides to suggest a slithering motion. Size: 6.45" H (16.4 cm)

In the Pre-Columbian world, birds were understood as sky animals that mediated between humankind and the deities of the celestial realm. Snake/serpents provide a fascinating element of Pre-Columbian iconography as they were regarded to be a beneficial source of nourishment and at the same time quite deadly with their poisonous venom. Also important to the indigenous was the fact that snakes shed their skin annually thus rejuvenating themselves and serving as symbols of renewal and good health. The existence of two snake heads on this piece may suggest the bicephalic serpent which was a signifier of high rank in various Pre-Columbian world views. These two-headed beasts were regarded as sky bands that arched over the earth or surrounded the seas serving as a passageway for the planets and stars of the celestial realm. This motif decorated articles associated with individuals of high rank, thus associating them with the powers of this mighty creature.

The value of jade in the Pre-Columbian world lay in its symbolic power; scholars believe its color was associated with water and vegetation. Costa Rica, along with Mesoamerica, is one of the two regions where jade was extensively carved in the Pre-Columbian world. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting anthropomorphic deities or animals such as birds, monkeys, snakes, crocodiles, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.

Provenance: ex Craig Hendrix collection, South Carolina, USA; ex Charles Craig Jr. collection, Costa Rica, acquired in the 1960s and 1970s

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

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Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.

#154109

Minute scuffs/nicks to surface commensurate with age, but otherwise intact and excellent. Drilled behind the beak for suspension. Rich deposits in the lower profile areas.