Trophy Head

Abundant in pre-Columbian Costa Rican art and iconography, disembodied human heads are often depicted as trophies held in the hands of human figures or simply as sculptures and head-shaped vessels. The large hole at the bottom of this ceramic head refers to decapitation. Scholars suggest that while trophy heads had a military context as spoils of war, their prominence also indicates a ritual dimension, an interpretation that is supported by a nineteenth-century scientist’s account of the taking of heads by Bribri and Teribe tribes. Among both groups, who are descendants of Costa Rica’s ancient people, high priests organized war parties to decapitate enemies and thereby eliminate sources of witchcraft and sorcery.