Cleveland Museum of Art

Mace Head

Date

300–500 CE

Medium

pecked and polished gray stone

Culture

Costa Rica

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Once mounted on wooden shafts, elaborately shaped mace (club) heads like this one probably were not used as weapons. Rather, they could have served as emblems of chiefly authority, group insignia, the heads of ceremonial weapons, or all three. They eventually were placed in elite graves. The back-curled nose on this example may refer to a crocodile or caiman. In ancient Costa Rica, it was believed that the world rested on the back of a crocodile.

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