/internal/media/dispatcher/1046889/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailJaguar effigy metateA.D. 300–700Overall: 36.8 x 86.4 x 35.6 cm (14 1/2 x 34 x 14 in.)BasaltMuseum purchase with funds donated by Jeremy and Hanne Grantham and Timothy Phillips2008.1691Metate (grinding stone) with three open-work supports and an open-work jaguar head whose ears are carved in the form of crocodiles. The sculptural style is associated with the Greater Nicoya region of northwestern Costa Rica and sourthern Nicaragua, characterized by delicate, open-work carving and finely incised details. These distinctive metates were used as ceremonial seats, funerary biers, and as grinding surfaces for tobacco and other hallucinogenic plants used during religious rites. The jaguar (or puma) may have been a lineage or clan symbol as also was the crocodile according to .16th-century Spanish sources.Tools and equipment36.830073660135.560071120151613501