Cleveland Museum of Art

Bird Pendant (Buzzard or Vulture?)

Date

c. 300 BCE–600 CE

Medium

jadeite

Culture

Costa Rica, Atlantic Watershed region

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Before about AD 500, when gold-working technologies were adopted in Costa Rica, jade was the quintessential luxury material and it was masterfully carved into exquisite ornaments of many kinds. Ancient Americans did not use many metal tools, and artists carved jade, a tough stone, with implements of stone, bone, bamboo, or reed.

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