A Costa Rican Marble Bird Mace Head, Greater Nicoya, Period IV, ca. 300 - 500 CE Funerary & Religious Equipment cylindrical shaft tube with three

cylindrical shaft tube with three cords across each side

much of Clark’s collection was gifted to the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

The instrument

Museum of Man CA 1968 #M459

beaked nose

A Costa Rican Marble Bird Mace Head, Greater Nicoya, Period IV, ca. 300 - 500 CE Funerary & Religious Equipment cylindrical shaft tube with threeCarved from smooth white marble, the round body with a stylized bird head featuring an elongated beak gently carved to indicate a mouth and a raised double head crest along the top of the head. Used as a symbolic object rather than a functional one, mace heads of this type occur in many different materials, sizes, and subjects. Found in most high status graves, mace heads most probably served as identifiers of the person's clan or family through a