Fine Olmec jade pendant, Middle Preclassic, ca. 900-600 B.C.

the spoon pendant carved with a bold image of the Olmec Supernatural, the deity associated with rain, dramatically highlighted by the deep emerald veining of the stone, the deity's head centered over the main depression of the spoon, with the distinctive features of a were-jaguar with taut downward curving mouth baring toothless gums, the upper lip flattened against the flared nostrils and with pierced septum, the recessed eyes narrowed, wearing the diagnostic headband straight across the brow with incised oval medallions on each side, the tapering handle extending to the right and secondary depression on the left, drilled with a pair of suspension holes at the top edge.

European Private Collector

Florida private collector

Acquired by present owners in 1998

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detroit Institute of the Art, 1994

Mayavase.com, A PreColumbian Portfolio, K6433

"The exotic material, fine workmanship, and specialized iconography of the spoons indicate their important role in ancient ceremonial life." (Joralemon in Benson and de la Fuente 1996: 256).

Olmec spoons were highly prized ritual objects and power emblems whose original function was enhanced by the imagery of Olmec mythology. Clam shells, with their simple scooped form may be the prototype for these high status jade examples. Kerr (1994) suggests the spoons may have been paint or pigment containers;  he suggests "... the Olmec prepared their paint containers and palettes from the sections of a conch, and then carved symbolic jade versions of the same implements." Wearing an object associated with scribal functions would be important for any elite member of society.
While the exact use of spoons is not known, they are closely associated with transformative rituals induced by hallucinogenic substances and bloodletting. They may have held hallucinogenic material or served as small portable receptacles for the bloodletting rituals that rulers and priests enacted in honor of their ancestors or to ensure the forthcoming rain and fertility of the earth. They are worn as pendants as evidenced on stone monuments of figures wearing spoon-shaped pendants. 

Spoons were also included in the sacred caches of jade and stone objects including perforators, celts, axes and canoe pendants, such as in the famous cache of Cerro de la Mesas of 1941 (Benson and de la Fuente 1996: 258). 

Spoons are typically carved with the profile of the Olmec bird monster, or the rain deity. The rain deity, also referred to as the Olmec Supernatural, is one of the most important deities of the Olmec pantheon. He is the infant figure held in the lap of the Las Limas figure -the anchor and focal point of other deities carved on the sculpture (ibid: cat. no. 9);  he is the shaman riding the back of a flying jaguar in a transformative journey on a fine small jade object (Princeton 1995:cat. no 63). Homage to the rain deity ensured the continuing life force of water and maize crops.

Olmec lapidary artists were unsurpassed for their adept treatment of some of the hardest stones known. This pendant is carved from an extraordinary piece of emerald green jade, the ultimate symbol of life and growing maize. Jade was sourced in the Motagua Valley and brought into the Olmec heartland along key trade routes. Many Olmec objects also were traded along this route, or brought there as heirloom pieces during the Preclassic period. 
A number of the spoon pendants and other important portable objects have been found in Costa Rica, see Benson and de la Fuente (1996:cat. no. 100 and 101); and Princeton (1995; cat. no. 101) for a spoon of the bird monster;  for a spoon from Guerrero incised with the rain deity face, see Benson and de la Fuente (1996: cat. no. 99).

An important fragmentary Olmec jade spoon is carved with a similar were-jaguar head, see Princeton (1995:198, cat. no. 83 and illustrated below right). This object was later incised with Maya glyphs naming a Preclassic Maya lord, indicating its importance as an heirloom years after its manufacture.
For an heirloom object of a winged pendant showing similar overall design, see Benson and de la Fuente (1996:cat. no. 97, illustrated below left). For a pair of Olmec ear ornaments in similar emerald green jade, see Berrin and Fields (2010: p. 18)