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

J.E. Thompson (1962) identified a large number of hieroglyphs occurring on ceramic objects, shells, bone pieces, and jade. The inscriptions found on these easily transportable objects, together with their styles, forms, and manufacturing techniques, have enabled archaeologists to infer the existence of extensive exchange networks throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (Stone 1964, 1972; Easby 1968). The extent of this exchange system, which reached southward to the Isthmus of Panama, has also been documented by colonial historians (Las Casas 1877; Fernández 1975). A large number of jade artefacts bearing Maya inscriptions have been discovered in Costa Rica, from the Caribbean coast to the plains of Guanacaste (Figure 1). In his book Jades of Costa Rica (1974), C. Balser presents a collection of the most outstanding pieces found in that country, some of which have been tentatively linked to sources within Maya territory on the basis of their inscriptions as well as stylistic characteristics. Of these pieces, two have been selected for the present study in order to determine the nature of the information contained in them and to identify their origin as precisely as possible. Figure 2 shows Jades I and II (Plates XIV and XII respectively in Balser 1974: 30, 32), which are the subject of this investigation.