Costa Rican Quartzite Owl Mace Head

Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica, ca. 500–1000 CE. A horned owl condensed into a fist of stone. Carved from blue-green quartzite, this ceremonial mace head presents a broad, rounded facial disc framed by a beaded border of drilled punctations, large recessed circular eyes, and a sharply hooked beak in high relief. Two upright tufted horns rise above the crown, flanking a wide cylindrical socket bored through the globular body for hafting to a wooden shaft. The dense surface carries a chalky white calcified accretion. Owls in the Intermediate Area were linked to night, augury, and the perils of the spirit world, and mace heads of this type were carried as emblems of rank and authority rather than swung as practical weapons. Mounted on a custom tapered hardwood block base. Size: 3.125" W x 3.625" H (7.9 cm W x 9.2 cm H).

Stone mace heads are among the most demanding sculptural forms of ancient Costa Rica. Worked without metal tools, they were shaped by pecking and abrasion from tough igneous and metamorphic stone, then bored through the center with a hollow cane or reed drill charged with sand and water, a slow process that risked splitting the blank at every stage. The Atlantic Watershed and Central Highland zones produced the finest examples, frequently in the form of raptors, owls, felines, and trophy heads.

Hafted to a shaft, such heads served as batons of office and as ritual paraphernalia, appearing in elite burials alongside jade pendants and elaborately carved metates. The owl was a potent choice: a silent nocturnal hunter widely understood across the Isthmo-Colombian world as a messenger between the living and the dead, and an apt companion for a figure claiming authority over both.

Provenance: Collection of Jimmy Belilty, Miami. Acquired from Latin American Artist Carlos Poveda, Caracas and Paris, 1980 - 1990.

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Item #

73120

Condition
Intact, excellent condition. Rare to find with its ancient calcified surface intact.

Buyer's Premium
30%