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LATE one January the “little yellow horse,” as our station wagon had been christened four years before, pulled into the plaza of the picturesque town of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Richard H. Stewart, Mrs. Stirling, and I had just driven across the rugged mountains which separate Oaxaca from Tehuantepec on the route of the Pan American Highway. The road was under construction and as yet hardly to be recommended for cars other than those equipped with oversized wheels and tires such as ours. We careened over narrow rocky roadbeds scratched along precipitous mountain sides. We forded rivers and crossed wide boulder-strewn beds where the water came well over our running boards. But bridges were being built and construction was proceeding on the main road at such a pace that soon motorists will be able to glide over this scenic route on a modern roadbed. We were started on our seventh archaeological expedition to southern Mexico under the auspices of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution. Tuxtla Gutiérrez, picturesque capital of the State of Chiapas, was our immediate objective.

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Finely carved jades were doubtless regarded by the Maya as objects of great value. They could be passed on from generation to generation and could be traded in distant parts. In most cases one cannot rely on the circumstances of their discovery to evince their origin, and often the only clue is the style of the carving itself, at best an uncertain criterion, especially since conclusions must be based largely on analogy with arts of different technique. Fortunately, a few jades were inscribed with dates, and when these dates can be related to inscriptions on monuments they sometimes furnish more...

gems, jade, nephrite, USA, Wyoming

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