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

The awakening of general interest in Chinese art has drawn the attention of the public also to the beauty of carved jade, the popular appreciation of which not many would have expected a few years ago. It was, however, not only throughout the ages of Chinese civilization that jade was especially prized. This semi-precious stone was venerated also in Central America before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores. The earliest dated object yet to be found on this continent is of jade—the famous Tuxtla statuette from the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico. Dr. Herbert Spinden interprets its glyphs as equivalent to 98 B.C. The carven figures of chiefs and gods of Copán, Honduras, which date from the “Great Period” of Maya art, in the early centuries of our own era, are adorned with necklaces, pendants, and ear-plugs of jade, showing that the splendid stone was then a part of the hierarchic ritual of this people. Beads and other objects of worked jade have been excavated from pre-Columbian tombs that date through the centuries up to the time of the Conquest. And in 1520, Cortés himself relates how Montezuma, seeing the Spaniards’ delight in his presents of gold objects, promised them far more valuable gifts the next day. It was jade which the Aztec Emperor then proffered, and the disillusioned Conqueror reports of “a few green stones” in complete indifference.