Functioning as a ceremonial badge of office or of a clan affiliation, this powerful mace head would have been mounted in a wooden staff and carried by its owner. The...
Functioning as a ceremonial badge of office or of a clan affiliation, this powerful mace head would have been mounted in a wooden staff and carried by its owner. The dramatic image of the monkey symbolizes the owner’s comparable qualities: courage and tenacity. To the Ancient Costa Ricans, the spider monkey was a revered animal, for it was believed that the monkey was actually a former warrior. This compelling mace head, with its imagery that is at once powerfully primitive and strikingly modern, continues to radiate its extraordinary energy – from past to present, it affects us in a most compelling manner.