Archaeology: Mayan Jade

Archaeology Get the latest headlines from the Archaeology GuideSite. Mayan Jade 4 Jul 2011, 2:54 pm Jade is a raw material that was used to make exotic luxury goods for royalty in prehistory throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Oddly enough, we modern sorts only recognize two of the many different green minerals as true jade: nephrite and jadeite. Jadeite is sometimes called "Mayan Jade", even though it was used throughout Mesoamerica, not just by the Maya. Jadeite Mask of the Mayan King Pakal. Photo by CarlosVanVegas In Mesoamerica, the Maya and other civilizations used jadeite quarried from at least one and perhaps as many as three sources to create fabulous greenstone luxury goods. An extreme example, by anyone's standards, is this jadeite mask from the tomb of Pakal the Great, found in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. Read all about Mayan Jade Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque Palace of Pakal the Great You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.