Jade use in Mesoamerica
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Maya_jade_plaque.jpg/200px-Maya_jade_plaque.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Deity_Figure_MET_DP23091.jpg/200px-Deity_Figure_MET_DP23091.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Jade_pendant.jpg/220px-Jade_pendant.jpg)
The use of jade in Mesoamerica for symbolic and
This extreme durability makes fine grained or fibrous jadeite and nephrite highly useful for Mesoamerican technology. It was often worked or carved as ornamental stones, a medium upon which glyphs[1] were inscribed, or shaped into figurines, weapons, and other objects. Many jade artifacts crafted by later Mesoamerican civilizations appear cut from simple jade axes, implying that the earliest jadeite trade was based in utilitarian function.
Jade and jadeite
In general terms,
Variation in color is largely due to variation in
Sources in Mesoamerica
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/WLA_lacma_Mayan_jadeite_pendant.jpg/220px-WLA_lacma_Mayan_jadeite_pendant.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Mesoamerican_obsidian_sourc.png/501px-Mesoamerican_obsidian_sourc.png)
The archaeological search for the Mesoamerican jade sources, which were largely lost at the time of the
The first discovery of
From 1974 to 1996, the only documented source of jadeite in Mesoamerica was the lowland Motagua River valley. Research conducted by the Mesoamerican Jade Project of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology between 1977 and 2000 led to the identification of both the long lost 'Olmec Blue' mines, a discovery published by Mesoamerican Jade project Field Director Russell Seitz and his colleagues from the American Museum of Natural History in Antiquity in December 2001. In addition, they conducted geochemical dating of several ancient Maya lode mines and alluvial sources in the mountainous areas on both sides of the Motagua. Following their exposure by the torrential rains of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, alluvial cobbles of blue jade were traced up a southern Motagua tributary, the Rio Tambor, to massive outcrops of fine grained translucent 'Olmec Blue' jadeite, at elevations of between 1200 and 3800 feet in the province of Jalapa, along a fault extending from Carrizal Grande to La Ceiba. Geochemical dating revealed that the southern deposits, including the archaeologically important translucent blue jade, were ~40 MA older that the coarse grained opaque jades mined for sale to tourists, or those from the higher elevations around a northern Motagua tributary, the Rio Blanco, where jadeite outcrops are found at elevations of up to an elevation of 6,000 feet and several of the ancient mining sites are connected by dry-laid stone paths.
It is noteworthy that the richest 'Olmec Blue' source area, far from being in 'the Motagua Valley' lies about 50 km southwest of Copán. Since the Motagua becomes Guatemala's border with Honduras, Honduras may host alluvial jade as well. The rediscovered 'Olmec' jade is of the quality traded throughout formative Mesoamerica, reaching areas as distant as the Valley of Mexico and Costa Rica. While Pool notes that "for many years, it had been suggested that there might be another source in the Balsas River valley"[citation needed], no such Mexican source has come to light; However, recent work has revealed that the high pressure-low temperature metamorphic rocks (blueschist facies) hosting jade deposits in Guatemala also outcrop as jadeite boulder bearing serpentine melange deposits at several places in Cuba and Hispaniola, where the material was exploited by the Taino and Carib cultures. Jade artifacts, mainly pointed celts, apparently stemming from these Antillean sources have been excavated as far east as Antigua in the Windward Islands. Given the scope and duration of the regional tectonic processes that created and exhumed these jade deposits, they may well extend into Chiapas as well.
However, one of the five islands in the chain known as Isla de Bahias, aka the Bay Islands, is not only rich in green Jadeite and some blue as well, but there is a beach aptly called Jade Beach with approximately fifty foot walls of Jadeite. Barbaretta is sandwiched between Guanaha to the east and Morat, Roatan, and Utila to the west. The beach is covered with well polished stones.[citation needed]
Uses
Art
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Olmec_mask_802.jpg/220px-Olmec_mask_802.jpg)
Jade was shaped into a variety of objects including, but not limited to, figurines,
A good example of jadeite garb is the Mayan Leiden Plaque. The plaque was known more as a portable stella, with hieroglyphs and narratives inscribed on its face. The markings provide a scene of a Maya lord standing with one foot on top of a captive.[1]
Jade
Religion
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Olmec_mask_at_Met.jpg/220px-Olmec_mask_at_Met.jpg)
The value of jade went beyond its material worth. Perhaps because of its color, mirroring that of water and vegetation, it was symbolically associated with life and death and therefore possessed high religious and spiritual importance.
The Maya placed jade beads in the mouth of the dead. Michael D. Coe has suggested that this practice relates to a sixteenth-century funerary ritual performed at the deaths of Pokom Maya lords: "When it appears then that some lord is dying, they had ready a precious stone which they placed at his mouth when he appeared to expire, in which they believe that they took the spirit, and on expiring, they very lightly rubbed his face with it. It takes the breath, soul or spirit."
Bishop Landa has associated the placement of jade beads in the mouths of the dead with symbolic planting and rebirth of the maize god.[6] Precious offerings depicting maize have been found in the Sacred Cenote, paralleling the interment of the Maize God himself entering the underworld. Many objects found were considered uniquely beautiful, and had been exquisitely crafted before offered as sacrifice.[7]
The Maya also associated jade with the sun
Elite Mayans wore jade pendants that depicted "mirror gods" associated with rulership in Mesoamerica.[9] Mirror divination was a part of spiritual practice in Mayan culture, and the Mayan sun god, Kinich Ahau, was often depicted in jade and other materials with a mirror on his forehead. The reflective quality of highly polished jade connected itself to other mirrored objects, promoting its spiritual importance and aesthetic value to the Maya.[9]
The aesthetic and religious significance of the various colors remains a source of controversy and speculation. The bright green varieties may have been identified with the young Maize God. The Olmec were fascinated with the unique blue jade of Guatemala and it played an important role in their rituals involving water sources. The Olmec used blue jade because it represented water, an Olmec iconography representing the Underworld. Blue also represented the blue color that snakes turn before shedding their skin; therefore, blue represents aquatic and serpentine rejuvenation.
Working jade
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Olmec_jade_ear_flares%2C_Met.jpg/220px-Olmec_jade_ear_flares%2C_Met.jpg)
Next to
Craftsmen employed lapidary techniques such as pecking, percussion, grinding, sawing, drilling, and incising to shape and decorate jade. Several of these techniques were thought to imbue pieces with religious or symbolic meaning. For instance, drilling holes into jade was thought to give a piece "life," or animate, a carving.[11]
In addition to being an elite good of highly symbolic use in the performance of ideological ritual, the high pressure minerals that form these translucent rocks are much tougher and more damage resistant than slightly harder but far more brittle materials such as flint.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Standing_Male_Figure.tif/lossy-page1-220px-Standing_Male_Figure.tif.jpg)
See also
Further reading
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- John B. Carlson, “The Jade Mirror: An Olmec Concave Jade Pendant,” in Precolumbian Jade: New Geological and Cultural Interpretations, ed. Frederick W Lange (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993). "Sources of Jade in Middle America" (PDF).
- Howard, Kim Be (n.d.). "Jadeite" (PDF). Gemmology Canada. Vancouver: Canadian Institute of Gemmology. reprinted online) on 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- Middleton, Andrew (2006). "Jade – Geology and Mineralogy". In Michael O'Donoghue (ed.). Gems: Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification (6th ed.). Oxford: OCLC 62088437.
- OCLC 41659173.
- Pool, Christopher A. (2007). Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge and New York: OCLC 68965709.
- Seitz, R.; G.E. Harlow; V.B. Sisson; S2CID 161433095.
- Wagner, Elisabeth (2006). "Jade – the Green Gold of the Maya". In OCLC 71165439.
References
- ^ )
- )
- ^ Pool (2007, p.150).
- ^ Nix, Crystal (24 January 1988). "A Mayan Past, A Latin Present in Guatemala". The New York Times.
- ^ "Archaeologist tells story of lost jade mines". 19 October 1999.
- S2CID 164460764.
- S2CID 164460764.
- ^ Miller (1999, p.74).
- ^ a b John B. Carlson, “The Jade Mirror: An Olmec Concave Jade Pendant,” in Precolumbian Jade: New Geological and Cultural Interpretations, ed. Frederick W Lange (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), 242–50.
- ^ Miller (1999, p.73).
- ^ )
- ^ Pool, p. 151.