Page 537 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

fig. i. View of Lake Guatavita, Colombia

slaves. In 1562 Vazquez de Coronado noted that crescents, head bands, and sheet-metal cuffs, historical times, for example, the Bribri and
war captives were brought back as slaves for precisely the kind of chiefly regalia listed in Cabecar Indians of Costa Rica had a single prin-
sacrifice, and these victims may have provided early Spanish accounts. At Coctu, a major cipal deity, called Sibo or Sibu, who was the
the trophy heads depicted on Diquis sculpture Diquis town, one of the chief's sons was himself creator of all things. It was Sibu who brought
and gold work. a goldsmith. the seeds from which humankind sprouted; he
Archaeological sites in Diquis are of various The subject matter of Diquis goldwork is taught people to dance and selected the clans
sizes. They are made up of residential sectors mainly figurative: animals (especially the from which shamans were drawn. He took the
surrounded by clusters of hilltop cemeteries, so-called eagle pendants), human beings, and form of a kite or buzzard. In the words of a
some of them marked by stone statues or huge mythological creatures, part human and part Bribri song:
spheres carved from granite. The difference animal. Within the natural world, Diquis
between rich and poor graves mirrors the social goldsmiths were selective. The most common Sibu came in the form of a buzzard
dressed as a man,
hierarchy in life. Some tombs contain only a creatures depicted are those that are dangerous 8
few simple pots or a single gold item; others or predatory, that sting, bite, or kill: jaguars,, collar on his neck.
(like the Huacal de los Reyes, discovered early in alligators, sharks, birds of prey, crabs, scorpions, Collars or necklaces are a standard feature on
this century) held several pounds of gold orna- spiders, bats, supernatural monsters. the eagle pendants of Diquis and Greater
ments. A single tomb, opened in 1956 at Palmar Some clues to the belief system that under- Chiriqui, and there are other pendants with
7
Sur, yielded eighty-eight metal objects: round lies this selection may be deduced from the human bodies and the wings and heads of birds
breastplates, human and animal pendants, bells, mythology of present-day Indian groups. In of prey. We can never be sure that the pre-His-

536 CIRCA 1492