Celtiform Pendants from Pre-Columbian Costa Rica

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This volume elucidates the lapidary technologies and social organisation of pre-Columbian Costa Rica (500 BCE - 900 CE) by analysing the manufacturing and social role of lapidary ornaments, known as celtiform pendants. These pendants are characterised by skilfully decorated carvings on celtiform semiprecious rocks and minerals, such as jadeite. A human or animal face is carved on the poll of the axe, and these sophisticated images require large amounts of time and effort to create, hence they are interpreted as status symbols and prestigious objects. They represent a thousand years of tradition of the manufacture of high-status ornaments and were used by elite members of Indigenous Costa Rican societies. Although ancient Costa Rican society was formed by different social-cultural groups, to some extent societal integration was achieved by a widely shared material culture: celtiform pendants. In addition to stylistic evaluations of these objects in specific sites and features, the text examines their manufacture via experimental archaeology and traceology.