Keywords
Nephrite
Pre-columbian sources
Mesoamerica
Caribbean
Jade social
Nefrita
Fuentes precolombinas
Mesoamérica
Caribe
How to Cite
Abstract
In this paper we review the mineralogical-petrological-geological information relevant for social jade (greenstone) used in Costa Rica during Pre-Columbian times. Around 50 % or even more of the pre-Columbian social jade artifacts in Costa Rica may have been produced using local sources (green lutlte and sandstone, serpentinite, jasper and other types of flint and quartz), but the rest of recovered samples seem to have been manufactured with material imported from external sources (i.e., jadeitite, omphacitite, chloromelanite, dolostone, marble and talc), for they are not present in Costa Rica. The geological evolution in the past did not favor the formation of jadeitite and other mentioned materials in Costa Rica. Hence, social jade made of material not present in Costa Rica must have been sourced from metamorphic regions from north Nicaragua to Mexico. Jadeitite and associated rocks (omphacitite, chloromelanite mineral) was most probably sourced from Guatemala, but Siuna (Nicargua) is a potential source that must be explored. Known sources of jadeitite in the Greater Antilles (Cuba and Dominican Republic) may have been also involved in the trade of jade finally arriving at Costa Rica. However, geological and anthropological arguments can be raised in favor of a “lost” source of jade in northern Venezuela. In a synoptic view, archaeological evidence, including lapidary, pottery and precious-metal craftwork, point to a strong commercial pre-Columbian network (jade route) from México to Panamá isthmus reaching further East to the north of Colombia and Venezuela and the Antilles. Detailed petrological/geochemical studies of jade (and related rocks) artifacts in Costa Rica are needed in order to move forward in the knowledge of the complex economic and cultural networks of Mesoamerica-Antillean pre-Columbian societies.
References
Alvarado, G. E. (2006). Objetos líticos precolombinos en Costa Rica: Tipos, frecuencia petrográfica, materia prima y aspectos sobre su utilización. Pre-Columbian Lithic Objects in Costa Rica: Types, Petrographic Frequency, Raw Materials, and Aspects of Use. En P. Fernández y G.E. Alvarado, G.E. (eds), Artesanos y piedras. Herramientas y escultura precolombina en Costa Rica. Craftsmen & stones. Pre-Columbian stone tools and sculpture in Costa Rica (pp. 71-127). San José, Costa Rica: Fundación Museos del Banco Central.
Bishop, R. L, Sayre, E. V. y Mishare, J. (1993). Compositional and structural characterization of Maya and Costa Rican jadeites. En F. W. Lange (ed.), Precolumbian jade. New geological and cultural interpretations (pp. 30-60). Utah: University of Utah Press.
Easby, E. K. (1968). Pre-Columbian jade from Costa Rica. New York, André Emmerich Inc.
Fernández, P. y Alvarado, G. E. (2006). Artesanos y piedras. Herramientas y escultura precolombina en Costa Rica. Craftsmen & stones. Pre-Columbian stone tools and sculpture in Costa Rica. San José, Costa Rica: Fundación Museos del Banco Central.
Ferrero, L. (1975). Costa Rica precolombina: arqueología, etnología, tecnología, arte (6ª reimpr.: 2000). San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica.
Fischer, H. (1875). Nephrit und jadeit nach ihren mineralogischen eigenschaften sowie nach ihrer urgeschichtlichen und ethnographischen Bedeutung. Einfuhrung der Mineralogie in das Studium der Archaeologie. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung (E. Koch).
Fischer, H. (1882). Bericht über eine Anzahl steinscultures aus Costarica. Abhandlungen herausgegeben vom Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein zu Bremen, 7, 153-185. Traducido por Lücke, O.H. y Alvarado, G.E. (2007). Informe sobre un número de esculturas de piedra. Revista Geológica de América Central, 37, 45-64.
Flores, K. (2003). Propuesta tectonoestratigráfica de la región septentrional del Golfo de Nicoya, Costa Rica (Tesis de licenciatura). Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Foshag, W. (1954). Estudios mineralógicos sobre el jade de Guatemala. Antropología e historia de Guatemala, VI(1), 3-47.
García-Casco, A., Rodríguez-Ramos, R., Knippenberg, S., Harlow, G. y Hofman, C. (2016). Descifrando la “ruta del jade” en Mesoamérica-Caribe: estudio geo-arqueológico de artefactos de jade pre-Colombinos en el Caribe con implicaciones geológicas y antropológicas. Conferencia para Cátedra de Patrimonio, La Madraza, Granada, España.
García-Casco, A., Rodríguez-Vega, A., Cárdenas-Párraga, J., Iturralde-Vinent, M.A., Lázaro, C., Blanco-Quintero, I.,…Carrasquilla, S. (2009). A new jadeitite jade locality (Sierra del Convento, Cuba): first report and some petrological and archeological implications. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 158, 1-16.
García-Casco, A., Knippenberg, S., Rodríguez-Ramos, R., Harlow, G. E., Hofman, C., Pomo, J. C. y Blanco-Quintero, I. F. (2013). Pre-Columbian jadeitite artifacts from the Golden Rock Site, St. Eustatius, Lesser Antilles, with special reference to jadeitite artifacts from Elliot’s, Antigua: implications for potential source regions and long-distance exchange networks in the Greater Caribbean. Journal of Archaeolical Science, 40, 3153-3169.
Guerrero, J. V. (1992). Entierros secundarios y restos orgánicos de 500 a.C. preservados en un área de inundación marina, Golfo de Nicoya, Costa Rica. Vínculos, 17, 17-51.
Harlow, G. E. (1993). Middle American jade. Geologic and petrologic perspectives on variability and source. En F. W. Lange (ed.), Precolumbian jade. New geological and cultural interpretations (pp. 9-29). Utah: University of Utah Press.
Harlow, G. E. y Sorensen, S. S. (2005). Jade (nephrite and jadeitite) and serpentinite: matasomatic connections. International Geology Review, 47: 113-146.
Harlow, G. E., Murphy, A. R., Hozjan, D. J., de Mille, C. N. y Levinson, A. A. (2006). Pre-Columbian jadeite axes from Antigua, West Indies: Description and possible sources. Canadian Mineralogist, 44, 305-321.
Harlow, G.E., Tsujimori, T. y Sorensen, S.S. (2015). Jadeitites and plate tectonics. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 43, 105-38.
Hartman, C. V. (1907). Archaeological researches on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Pittsburgh: Memoirs of the Carnigie Museum.
Herrera, A. (1998). Espacio y objetos funerarios en la distinción de rango social en Finca Linares. Vínculos, 22(12), 125-156.
Hurtado de Mendoza, L., Alvarado, G. E. y Lücke, O. H. (2007). El carácter pionero de los trabajos de Heinrich Fischer (1875, 1881, 1882) sobre los jades sociales en la geoarqueología de Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 37, 35-44.
Jones, J. (1998). Jade in ancient Costa Rica. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ladoo, R. B. y Myers, W. M. (1951). Nonmetallic minerals. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Laguna, J. y Kussmaul, S. (1982). Análisis de la colección de jades del Instituto Nacional de Seguros. San José. Instituto Nacional de Seguros. Manuscrito inédito.
Lange, F. W. y Bishop, R. L. (1983). A search for jade sources and prehistoric settlement on the Santa Elena peninsula. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society, 14(1-2), 221-225.
Lange, F. W., Bishop, R. L. y van Zelst, L. (1993). Perspectives on Costa Rican jade: Compositional analyses and cultural implications. En F. W. Lange (ed.), Precolumbian jade. New geological and cultural interpretations (pp. 167-175). Utah: University of Utah Press.
Meléndez, C. (1974). Viajeros por Guanacaste. San José: Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes.
Meyer, A. B. (1888). The nephrite question. American Anthropologist, 1(3), 231-242.
Ostos, M. y Sisson, V. B. (2005). Geochemistry and tectonic setting of igneous and metaigneous rocks of Northern Venezuela. Special Paper of the Geological Society of America, 394, 119-156.
Ranere, A. J. (1975). Toolmaking and tool use among the preceramic peoples of Panama. En E. H. Swanson (ed.), Lithic technology: making and using stone tools (World Anthropology Series, pp. 173-210). Chicago: Mouton & Co.
Ranere, A. J. (1980). Stone tools and their interpretation. En O. F. Linares y A. J. Ranere (eds), Adaptive radiations in prehistoric Panama (Peabody Museum Monographs, 5, pp. 118-138). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Reynoard, M. (1993). A possible source of raw material for the Costa Rican lapidary industry. En F. W. Lange (ed.), Precolumbian jade. New geological and cultural interpretations (pp. 61-67). Utah: University of Utah Press.
Reynoard, M. (1996). El papel del jade en el proceso socio-cultural de las sociedades antiguas de Costa Rica (Tesis de licenciatura inédita). Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Rodríguez-Ramos, R. (2013). Isthmo-Antillean engagements. En W. F. Keegan, C. Hofman y R. Rodríguez Ramos (eds), Oxford handbook of Caribbean Archaeology (pp. 155-170). New York: Oxford University Press.
Rodríguez-Ramos, R. (2011). The circulation of jade across the Caribbeanscape. En C. Hofman, y A. van Duijvenbode (eds), Communities in contact. Essays in archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography of the Amerindian Circum-Caribbean (pp. 114-136). Leiden: Sidestone Press.
Salgado, S. y Guerrero, J. V. (2005). La distribución de la jadeíta en Centroamérica y su significado social. Cuadernos de Antropología, 15, 53-64.
Sánchez, L. (2015). Revisión de la secuencia cultural Orosí-Tempisque de la Gran Nicoya: nuevos datos provenientes de las excavaciones del sitio Manzanillo (G-430 Mz). Cuadernos de Antropología, 25(1), 67-97.
Schertl, H.-P., Maresch, W. V., Stanek, K. P., Hertwig, A., Krebs, M., Baese, R. y Sergeev, S. S. (2012). New occurrences of jadeitite, jadeite quartzite and jadeite-lawsonite quartzite in the Dominican Republic, Hispaniola: Petrological and geochronological overview. European Journal of Mineralogy, 24, 199-216.
Schumann, W. (1978). Guía de las piedras preciosas y ornamentales (Traducción al español del original Edelsteine und Schmucksteine. Munich, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft). Barcelona: Editorial Omega, S.A.
Seitz, R., Harlow, G. E., Sisson, V. B. y Taube, K. A. (2001). “Olmec Blue” and Formative jade sources: new discoveries in Guatemala. Antiquity, 75, 687-688.
Snarskis, M. J. (2003). From jade to gold in Costa Rica: how, why, and when. En J. Quilter y J. W. Hoppes (eds), Gold and power in ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia (pp. 159-204). Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Taube, K. A., Sisson, V. B., Seitz, R. y Harlow, G. E. (2004). The sourcing of Mesoamerican jade: expanded geological reconnaissance in the Motagua Region, Guatemala. En K. A. Taube, Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Pre-columbian art at Dumbarton Oaks, No. 2 (Appendix, pp. 203-220). Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Tsujimori, T. y Harlow, G. E. (2012). Petrogenetic relationships between jadeitite and associated high-pressure and low-temperature metamorphic rocks in worldwide jadeitite localities: A review. European Journal of Mineralogy, 24, 371-390.