Barriles Culture Stone Metate

Even today, stone metates in the Americas are used to grind maize and other foodstuffs. Certain ancient rituals must have incorporated this activity and required special metates to be created for this purpose. The decorative quality of some Central American metates suggests a ceremonial function. Most are carved in volcanic stone, and bear fretted edges, tripod legs covered with geometric relief and cut-outs, and, at one end, an abstract animal-head motif, frequently a bird's head. The ornament may be related to the owner of the object or to the ritual in which the metate was used. Its function as a surface for grinding maize, a staple food of the region from which they come, links these sculptures with the notion of fertility, a primary concern for an agricultural people. It has been suggested that the ceremonial metate, given its ritual importance, may have also served as a throne for the ruler, for whom the assurance of the fertility of his land and people would have been paramount, though this would only seem possible with some of the larger and stronger built metates.

Cocle Stone Metate

Cocle Stone Metate

Elaborate openwork grindstones dating from between 500 and 1500 AD are found in most of Central America. They are made of porous volcanic stone and constitute practical objects displaying signs of use. Their shapes and sizes vary according to the geographic zone and time period. They can be small, measuring 10 cm high and 30 cm long or they can measure 40 cm high and between 50 and 90 cm long.   Grindstones have a wide concave or flat plate-like surface that was used for grinding grains or preparing food. They come with a cylindrical uncarved rock pestle. Grindstones from this zone are characterized by their intricate decoration as opposed to plain grindstones from other geographical regions.  Elaborate grindstones have animal shapes. Typical Gran Nicoya grindstones (northwestern Costa Rica and southwestern Nicaragua) have a rectangular concave plate featuring a jaguar or parrot face and three pointy legs - two of them located in the back and one in the front.  The head and legs display fine geometrical decoration with openwork in elaborate filigree technique.  The so-called "panel volante" or "panel colgante" grindstones feature a rectangular plate and, under the plate and between the legs, a horizontal panel heavily decorated with sculpture in the round, and openwork technique. Decoration includes complex geometric motifs or animals (mostly birds with curved beaks, jaguars and human figures).  Other grindstones have an oval or rectangular plate with round edges portraying a jaguar head on one side, four feline legs and a twisted tail that rests on one of the hind legs. They are from the Gran Chiriquí region in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama.  There are also circular grindstones that resemble tables or ceremonial benches featuring an openwork base and edges portraying human or animal heads.