Page 605 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

THE LANDS OF GOLD entrusted to the earth soon after its creation, myths that may shed light on the original
either buried with the chiefs who had commis- meaning of some of these objects. A recurring
Stretching between the Aztec and Inka empires sioned it or, in the case of the Muiscas, hidden theme is the ability of the priest or shaman to
were a series of prosperous chief doms that are for the gods in secret offering caches. transform himself into animal guise during
best known today for the exquisite quality of Gold in these cultures was a material associ- religious rituals, a popular belief in societies of
their craftsmanship in gold. The Diquis culture ated with temporal and religious power. While this type throughout the pre-Columbian
flourished late in the period before European some of the objects —earrings, nose ornaments, Americas. The Muiscas developed a special
contact in what is today Costa Rica, and in necklaces, and so forth —clearly functioned as category of gold objects, the so-called tunjos.
present-day Colombia the principal gold-pro- jewelry, many works in gold embodied a com- Somewhat like European ex-votos, these were
ducing cultures included the Tairona, the Sinu, plicated religious iconography. Ethnographers small representations of humans and animals
the Popaydn, and the Muisca. Fortunately for working with the present-day descendants of that were offered to the gods in the hope of
us much of their artistic production in gold was these cultures have come across legends and having favors granted.

DIQUIS
emphasis on human trophy-head symbols on Diquis as oval in shape, built on a ridge with
Diquis, a word deriving from an indigenous carved stone metates (grindstones) and resist small entrances at the eastern and western
language, is still used to denote the southwest- (batik-technique) decoration on ceramics extremes that could be raised or lowered from
ern quarter of Costa Rica, including the west- almost identical to similar pottery from north- the inside like drawbridges; two steeply banked
ern slopes of the Talamanca Mountains (the ern Colombia. As Diquis moved past A.D. 800- streams at the north and south provided pro-
highest of these in Costa Rica at 3,823 meters 1000, there was an interesting local reflection tection. Two parallel walls surrounded the fort,
[12,500 feet]), the agricultural General Valley, of the polychrome pottery explosion in north- with holes and trenches between them. Inside
and the dense lowland Pacific rain forests of the western Costa Rica, the symbolism of which the walls were eighty-four circular houses,
Osa Peninsula. Modern political divisions are was strongly Mesoamerican. Diquis, like the raised about half a meter off the ground on
differently named, and archaeologists usually Central Highland and Atlantic lowland tradi- stilts and roofed with conical spires of thatch.
group the zone with northwestern Panama, tions, produced pale imitations of the brilliant The houses were arranged in groups separated
with which it shares many prehistoric and Greater Nicoya polychrome pottery, probably by open streets, in such a way that an enemy
ethnohistorical traits, calling it the Greater indicating coastwise trade networks. could not take more than one group without
Chiriqui Sub-Area. In general, Diquis has Of the three major archaeological zones of exposing himself to mortal fire from the others.
witnessed less scientific archaeology than the Costa Rica, Diquis is that most clearly "south- Each house was normally occupied by twenty-
other zones of Costa Rica, although looting is ern," as opposed to Mesoamerican, in terms of five men with their women and children.
endemic. cultural artifacts. The most obvious difference, Such detailed descriptions were corroborated
Among the objects excavated or collected other than style, is the early emergence of in the 19705 (Snarskis 1978) and 19805 (Drolet
scientifically by archaeologists in Diquis are metallurgy in gold and gold-copper alloys (the 1984; Snarskis 1984) by controlled archaeolog-
ground and chipped stone tools more than latter have a melting temperature lower than ical excavations that clearly revealed circular
seven thousand years old and, at the other that of gold or copper individually), a result of house foundations of river cobbles, with stone-
extreme of the indigenous cultural sequence, the diffusion of metallurgical technology from paved walkways running between and around
quantities of glass beads of European manufac- south to north, culminating in the adoption of, them, and many domestic activity areas defined
ture found in tombs together with crude post- especially, the lost-wax casting technique, by grindstones, hearths, and large clusters of
Hispanic local pottery (Quintanilla 1987). already developed in Colombia by 500-300 B.C. broken pottery and stones. Both in Diquis and
While pottery dating to at least 2000 B.C. is The fascination with cast metals set the Diquis the Atlantic zone of Costa Rica, strategically
now known (Corrales 1985), most archaeolo- region apart in Costa Rica, as did the pro- located "city-states" or principal villages, the
gical remains found date from c. 300 B.C. for- duction of caleros (containers for lime used in power bases of local chiefs, were able to domi-
ward. Until around A.D. 500-800, the zoned the chewing of the coca leaf, a singularly nate areas several hundred square kilometers in
red-on-buff pottery found in the rest of Costa Andean tradition). Furthermore, effigies of size. These polities seemed to be in a state of
Rica predominated, although with distinctive American camelids, not native to Costa Rica, constant warfare, in which prisoners were often
shapes and motifs. Notably, the emphasis on appear in ceramic types that continued into taken and later sacrificed. Warriors depicted in
elite-oriented lapidary work in jade seen in the historic times. The natural range of the Ameri- stone sculpture and other media are frequently
rest of Costa Rica at that time was almost can camelid (llama or guanaco) at best reached shown holding an ax and a shrunken human
absent, and there is good evidence that the tra- southern Colombia, so the Costa Rican repre- head; such "trophy heads" are also seen as
dition that produced the famous giant stone sentations either show trade of clearly drawn dominant motifs on elaborate ceremonial met-
spheres began in the first centuries after Christ objects or personal contact between Diquis and ates, suggesting that propitiation of agricultural
(Drolet and Markens 1981). Prehistoric settle- the Andes. deities was part of the rituals performed.
ment patterns of this time typically show When the first Spaniards arrived in Diquis Most native gold in Costa Rica is found in
small villages of twenty to two hundred inhabi- (they had crossed the Central American Diquis, in the form of placer deposits, and pre-
tants following the smaller streams of the isthmus in Panama and come back up the historic gold artifacts have been found with
uplands and foothills, always on agriculturally Pacific Coast), they observed what they called much greater frequency in Diquis than in the
viable land. palenques — stockades or palisaded villages pro- other archaeological zones of the country. This
The succeeding transitional period also tected by walls of cactus or other spiny plants. fits with the generally "southern" cultural
echoed ceramic and stone sculptural traditions Juan Vazquez de Coronado (1964, 33-45) affiliation of Diquis, as metallurgy originated
seen in the rest of Costa Rica, especially in the described a palenque of the Coto people in in the Andes many centuries before Christ,

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