Material : Stone
Origin : Eastern Costa Rica
Culture : Atlantic Watershed
Era : 500 / 1000 AD

Condition : good condition

Dimensions : H = 12 cm (4,68 in) L = 32,7 cm (12,75 in)

Price : NC

 

Beautiful metate with a circular plate portraying a jaguar's head on one side, four feline's legs and a twisted tail, that rests on one of the legs. A metate is an ornate grinding stone table with a variety of deity or animalistic shapes or design. Metates were used for the grinding of foodstuffs, but metates became also a ritual object. The typical metate is embellished with a elaborate design like a zoomorphic head of sauriens, birds, jaguars.
These type of metates have been discovered in burials.
Provenance: private german collection