Costa Rican jade tradition

It, along with other similar-looking greenstones (e.g. chalcedony, serpentine, and green jasper) were cherished and worked for years.

The end of the jade tradition in Costa Rica corresponds with the beginning of gold work.

Jadeite rates between 6 and 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness, therefore making it extremely tough and time-consuming to work because it was necessary to use minerals of equal or harder value.

String sawing was a technique likely developed by Costa Rican lapidaries, in the northeastern region.

The bulk of Costa Rican jades contain drilled holes so they can be utilized to decorate the body in bead and pendant form.

The earliest known jade work is the Avian axe god celt found at the site of La Regla, dated at 500 BC.

Some of the beaks are curved into a spiral, and attached to the body presenting the string saw technique.

Postulated by David Mora-Marín there was a direct exchange network between the previously mentioned area in Guatemala (in the Mayan lowlands) and the northwestern/ central areas of Costa Rica between 300 BC and 800 AD, in which Costa Ricans obtain jade.