Small, two-part object consisting of a flat, round bowl with a curved hollow handle. The bowl has a convex base and a straight rim. The short, wide handle has two upright, oval openings. It has sculptural and moulded decorations. The ceramic was smoothed on both sides, slurried, primed and lightly polished. The primer is partially eroded. There are small cracks on the rim and handle. The object has a brown base colour. The decorations on the handle seem to allude to a zoomorphic creature. Symbolic meaning: similar objects are often interpreted as "smoking spoons" due to formal analogies to Mesoamerican ceramics (Lothrop 1926: 365), although traces of firing have only rarely been found. Haberland (1961e) documented a similar object near Buenos Aires (Diquís region), which was found in a stone cist grave and was associated with "magic stones". The excavator interpreted the finding as a shaman burial. Lothrop (1926) discusses the object group in the chapter highland region, red ware. Cultural significance: pottery of supra-regional distribution, produced in periods VI (1550-1000d.C.) and V (1000-500d.C.) in the Central Highlands, on the Atlantic slope and in the Diquís region. The Cleto González Víquez donation originally comprised 144 objects, 100 of which had already been inventoried at the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica. (Künne 2004)