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Mace Head
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Once mounted on wooden shafts, elaborately shaped mace (club) heads like this one probably were not used as weapons. Rather, they could have served as emblems of chiefly authority, group insignia, the heads of ceremonial weapons, or all three. They eventually were placed in elite graves. The back-curled nose on this example may refer to a crocodile or caiman.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineMace Head, 300–500 CE. Costa Rica. Pecked and polished gray stone; overall: 4.2 x 7.3 x 13.6 cm (1 5/8 x 2 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.165
