The Gold Museum in San Jose contains the largest collection of pre-Columbian gold jewelry in Central America: there are more than 20,000 troy ounces of gold in more than 1600 pieces.
Most metal objects found in Costa Rica came from the South Pacific or Diquis. Curators were saying that the areas where gold objects were found are the same areas where giant spheres were found also.
In the area of Gran Chiriqui, a metallurgy technique was developed near the year 400 AD. Pre-Columbian people who worked the metallurgy simultaneously used other means to express ideas, such as ceramic and stone. The alloy formed by a mixture of gold and copper was amply used and known as "tumbaga." It melts at a low temperature.
Some birds which can be identified in the objects are parrots, symbols of intelligence, aquatic birds which are transmitters of messages and as symbols of fertility, sacred birds, such as macaws, which could only be touched by gravediggers to be used in funerals.
Within ritual elements associated with the shaman is the ability to "fly" and cross supernatural boundaries during the shamanistic flight or trance.
