Mayan Symbol for Dentistry in Costa Rica
Abstract
Among the great treasures found in the Jade Museum, located in the new building of the National Insurance Institute in San José, Costa Rica, is a magnificent piece of pre-Columbian art, an elaborate pendant made of serpentine jade with Mayan script engravings.
It was described by the renowned British archaeologist, epigrapher and ethnographer John Eric Thompson, from the University of Cambridge and the world-renowned Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA. He is the leading expert on Mayan cultures of his time, and is quoted by Luis Ferrero in his book “Pre-Columbian Costa Rica”, published by Costa Rica Publishing, printed in 1975. On page 87 he shows and describes the image of a jade pendant with cartridge glyphs, and says literally “The glyph on the left was interpreted as Bat Face; The one on the right was called the Toothache Glyph by J. Eric Thompson and interpreted as a vulture with a bandage to tie it to the Moon.” As a detail, it is clarified that its origin is Bagaces, Guanacaste. Collection of the National Insurance Institute of Costa Rica.
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Copyright (c) 2015 Rodrigo Villalobos Jiménez
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