gems, jade, fei cui, pyroxene jade, jadeite, omphacite, kosmochlor, Guatemala, Motagua Valley

Jadeite objects were highly valued prestige goods and played a vital part in the political economies of all pre-hispanic Mesoamerican civilizations. Despite their importance, Mesoamerican archaeologists know little about how prestige goods production was organized. From October to December 2005, FAMSI-supported field research, consisting of archaeological survey and excavations, was carried out as part of the Proyecto de Investigación Sobre la Producción de Jade en el Río Lato (PJ 2005) to understand the distribution, organization, and technological process of jadeite artifact production in the Middle Motagua Valley, centering on the region around the Lower Lato River Valley. Excavations were initiated to determine if surface jadeite debitage scatters represented in situ jadeite workshops. Archaeological survey attempted to identify other potential jadeite workshops throughout the valley and make representative surface collections from these sites. Our field research indicates that jade artifact production was much more widespread than previously believed.