“They’re made of very, very fine clay without any obvious additives, so this is a very fine piece of art,” Dr Jan Szymański from the University of Warsaw told IFLScience. He adds that the assemblage was found “on top of the largest, most prominent structure of the entire site, in more or less the geometrical center of the pyramid, which makes it obviously quite special.”

Describing the “Bolinas-type” puppets in a new study, Szymański and his co-author Gabriela Prejs explain that the collection consists of three larger figures – roughly 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) in height – and two smaller examples, each between 10 and 18 centimeters tall (3.9 to 7.1 inches). The larger triplet all feature “articulated, adjustable heads, facilitated by conical protrusions on the necks and matching sockets in the base of each head,” write the researchers.

In terms of facial expression, Szymański says that “the three large ones have this sort of empty look to them, but when you shift your gaze to look down at them from above, they look angry. Then if you lift the figurine to the level of your eyes, it starts to look disdainful, aloof, even. And then if you move further away, they actually start to look scared, because of the parted lips, because of the bare teeth and tongues sticking out.”

“I’m pretty certain it’s not something incidental that’s actually a conscious design,” he says.

When it comes to the question of who made the exquisite artifacts, however, Szymański concedes that “the only very competent and fully honest answer would be, we absolutely don’t know, because San Isidro is located smack dab in the middle of something that we could call a liminal zone between large study areas.” To the west and north lies Mesoamerica, which was once dominated by the Maya, while the east and south are occupied by the Isthmo-Colombian area that was home to the pre-Hispanic Chibchan-speaking cultures.

In Mesoamerican thought, still visible today, to recreate something was to actually create it. So if a ruler decided to commission a sculpture of himself, he was effectively cloning himself

Jan Szymański

However, because the layer of earth in which the figurines were found has been dated to between 410 and 380 BCE, it appears that the figures were made long before any of these cultures rose to prominence. “So we’re in a perfect gap in our knowledge,” says Szymański.

Exactly what the puppets were used for is equally difficult to ascertain, although one possibility is that they were intended to be portraits of actual people. For instance, one of the quintet appears to have a tattooed face and narrower hips than the rest, suggesting that this figure may be male, with the others potentially representing wives and daughters.

Alternatively, Szymański proposes that the figurines may have been used during “rituals that would involve recreation of some actual events or mythical events.”

“In Mesoamerican thought, still visible today, to recreate something was to actually create it,” he explains. “So if a ruler decided to commission a sculpture of himself, he was effectively cloning himself, allowing himself to look over his people even when he was away.”

At this stage, it’s impossible to say if the seemingly male figure actually represents some ancient chieftain or how the figurines might have been ritually manipulated, although Szymański says it’s noteworthy that none of the figures were wearing clothes. This, he suggests, indicates that the puppets had no fixed attire but could be dressed and undressed in order to represent different personas or take part in different scenarios.

“So you could actually put on clothes depending on what role those figurines were to play,” says Szymański. “You could change their appearance, and so the deposit that we found was just their final performance, but not necessarily the one that they were made for.”

The study is published in the journal Antiquity.