costa rican stone metate with carved designs, Guanacaste- Nicoya region, Late Period IV/Early Period V, ca. A.D. 300-700

the curving rectangular platform fluidly carved on the underside with a bold and complex interlaced design of multiple strands reminiscent of the mat motif associated with authority and sacred bundles, the supporting legs each of a squatting human figure with arms raised, seen in profile as an avian head with openwork beak, and small projecting heads at one end of the platform; in gray volcanic stone.

Edinburgh, Scotland, City Arts Centre, August 3-31, 1985

Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Museum of Art, November 22, 1985-January 31, 1986

Lois Katz, ed. Art of Costa Rica, Pre-Columbian Painted and Sculpted Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D.C., 1985, no. 184

Overall worn surface and clearly used felt by smooth polish on center of platform. Intact and carving on underside very nice.
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