gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology

In the first months of 2008, a comprehensive study began on a fundamental work of Mesoamerican art, notable for its great value and beauty: the mask of Malinaltepec. The resulting body of evidence demonstrates that the object itself possesses the information necessary to allow us to deepen our understanding both of the piece and of its cultural environment, and to recognize the similarities among the early societies that inhabited our territory, both in the subtle symbolism used to express their religious and ceremonial concepts and in the tangible realm of the materials and manufacturing techniques they employed.