Jadeite was the most precious of all materials in the eyes of the pre-Columbian peoples of Costa Rica, and throughout Ancient America. Jadeite and similar greenstones were worked into a wide variety of items worn as emblems of social and political power. One of the most common forms was the so-called ax god pendant, which was suspended from a cord around the neck. The name "ax god" comes from the form of the pendant, which replicates the shape of the traditional stone chopping tool (or axe). Some represent human-like supernatural beings. It is also possible that it represents a shaman who has transformed himself into a supernatural being.

Zoomorphic
Zoomorphic designs depicting unspecified or unidentifiable animalistic shapes or designs also see below in Various

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Dumbarton Oaks Collection

Axes or Pendants?

There is debate over the use of the "so-called" Axe-God designs.  Some argue that they were strictly an adornment, while other suggest they were utilitarian, and specific objects do show wear.

While the jadeite used is not an extremely strong stone, it is perfectly usable as a wood cutting tool.  It is also potentially useful as a war axe against humans and animals.  In most cases, these appear to be used for more ornamental purposes than for every day utility.

• Precolumbian Jade: New Geological and Cultural Interpretations
• El Jade Precolombino en Costa Rica
• Pre-Columbian jade from Costa Rica
• Oro, Jade, Bosques Gold, Jade, Forests, Costa Rica
• Gold, Jade, Forests: Costa Rica
• Gold and Jade from Costa Rica: Treasures from the Pre-Columbian Era
• Pre-Columbian jade from Costa Rica
• The jades of middle america (Papers from the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington)
• Ancient Treasures of Costa Rica: Art and Archaeology of the Rich Coast
• Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.(Book Review): An article from: Latin American Antiquity
• Notes on present-day pottery making and its economy in the ancient Chorotegan area (Middle American research records)
• Ancient art from Costa Rica: [an exhibition at] Scripps College, Claremont, California, Oct. 20-Nov. 12, 1953. Foreword and titles prepared by Alfred E. Stendahl
• The Boruca of Costa Rica (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)
• Introduction to the archaeology of Costa Rica
• Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica
• Archaeology of the DiquiÌ�s Delta, Costa Rica (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)
• The archaeology of the San Dimas Valley, Costa Rica, (Museum of Anthropology miscellaneous series)
• The Archeology of Costa Rica and Nicaragua
• Notes on the archaeology of Costa Rica,
• An Archaeological survey of the Rio Sapoa Valley: Report on a preliminary season of archaeological research in northwestern Guancaste Province, the Republic of Costa Rica, spring, 1969

Avian
Avian designs depicting an avian/bird shape or design also see below in Various

INS Gold Museum Collection

Jade Owl pendant
Jadeite
Costa Rica

CR INS Collection

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Metropolitan Museum Collection

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Jade Museum Costa Rica

Mayan greenstone or jadeite mace head from the Guanacaste Nicoya region of Costa Rica.  Pale green, slightly translucent stone.  Avian effigy form, probably a parrot or Curassow.  Classic disk shaped eyes and grooved crest.

Introduction to the archaeology of Costa Rica

Archaeological Researches in Costa Rica

Ancient Treasures of Costa Rica: Art and Archaeology of the Rich Coast

Human / Shaman / Demon
Human, shaman, or demonic designs depicting a human/shaman/demon shape or design also see below in Various

North Caroline museum of art collection

Dumbarton Oaks Collection

The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection

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Guanacaste-Nicoya Culture

Guanacaste-Nicoya Culture

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Cleveland Museum of Art

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Gold Museum Costa Rica

Gold Museum Costa Rica

Costa Rica, a tropical country of environmental and biological diversity, is located between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south in lower Central America. With Mesoamerica, Costa Rica is one of the two regions in which jade was extensively carved in Precolumbian times. The earliest evidence for worked jade, a pendant excavated in a burial on the Nicoya Peninsula, is dated to the mid-first millennium B.C., and jade continued to be carved into similar personal ornaments until approximately 700 A.D., when its use appears to have died out and/or been replaced by a fashion for ornaments of gold. The early pendant was made in the shape of a celt, or ax, with a top worked into a bird head and torso. Circular eyes and a wide downturned beak define the head above folded wings, in a basic version of what would be the classic Costa Rican bird pendant in jade. The bird-celt pendant would undergo many elaborations during subsequent centuries, all the while retaining these essential features.

Primates
Primate designs depicting monkeys or other primate shapes or design also see below in Various

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Cleveland Museum Of Art

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The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection

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Necklaces
Necklace Adornments indefinable or odd shapes or designs - consisting entirely of jade or combining jade and other materials such as gold

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Jade Museum Costa Rica

Gold Museum Costa Rica

Jade Museum Costa Rica

Private Collection object - unknown provenience

Metropolitan Museum

Utility Objects
Utilitarian Objects Made From Jade or Stone from Costa Rica

The Jade Museum
San Jose, Costa Rica

The Precolumbian peoples of Costa Rica didn't build tall pyramids or huge monuments. Instead, they left a legacy of carefully wrought ceramics, jade, stone, and gold. Visitors to Costa Rica's capital city of San Jose can see this rich heritage at two fascinating museums.

The Marco Fidel Tristan Castro Jade Museum occupies a floor in the National Insurance Institute's headquarters. The 1,600 artifacts include an astonishing collection of ceramics from 500 B.C. to A.D. 1300, incorporating human figures, serpents, birds, alligators, and fish. Hundreds of jade pieces produced from 500 B.C. to A.D. 800 are another highlight. Jade is harder than steel, and these objects, sawn with sisal fibers and deerskin strips and polished with beeswax and abrasives, have an air of stately grandeur, although most are just a few inches long.

The Jade Museum's eleventh-story windows afford fine views of the city and surrounding mountains. By contrast, the Costa Rica Central Bank's Gold Museum is two stories underground, inside an enormous vault. Visitors to the collection are briefed on local history, archaeology, and metallurgy before reaching the gold itself.

Honoring the region's indigenous and ancient peoples as much as the gold, the exhibition groups some two thousand pieces by their importance to shamans and warriors. There are dozens of hammered gold breastplates, nose ornaments, and necklaces, and hundreds of small but spectacular casts of costumed figures, deities, and animals--the spiritual and natural world of the rain forest in miniature.

From Archaeology Magazine

Various
Various designs depicting a variety of animal or other shapes and designs in jade

Carnegie Museum of Natural History collection

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MACE Club Heads
Various battle mace or club-head designs usually affixed to the end of a wooden handle

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Mayan greenstone or jadeite mace head from the Guanacaste Nicoya region of Costa Rica.  Pale green, slightly translucent stone.  Avian effigy form, probably a parrot or Curassow.  Classic disk shaped eyes and grooved crest.

Jade Museum Costa Rica

Cleveland Museum Of Art

Utility
Jade and other stone utility pieces

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (2793/72)

Discovered at the site of Las Huacas on the Nicoya Peninsula in 1903, this working celt of jadeite shows both polished and unpolished surfaces. The unpolished end was hafted.

Private Collection

Private Collection

Other Stones
Other designs in other Central American Stones