gems, jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mayans, Olmecs, Aztecs, archaeology, history, archaeogemology, Pre-Columbian jade; Costa Rica; Maya; exchange; iconography, lapidary

This work includes the study of the various artefacts recovered during excavations of Structures I, II, III, and VII as part of the Calakmul Project of the Autonomous University of Campeche between 1984 and 1994 (Folan et al. 1995; Figure 1). The material comprises artefacts made from a variety of materials, including shell, bone, ceramic and stone miscellanea, as well as less common objects made of wood and a few others fashioned from unidentified materials. For this study, concentration tables were prepared for each material type, correlating columns indicating artefact classes with rows showing their provenance. This made it possible to observe the presence and frequency of objects in the various rooms and spaces inside and outside the excavated structures. In general terms, the shell artefacts included beads, pendants, centrally perforated discs, unperforated discs, pectorals, thin plaques, shells of the genera Oliva and Conus with and without suspension perforations, ornaments made from Spondylus, stingray spines, worked, partially worked, and unworked shell of the genera Arca, Crassostrea, and mother-of-pearl, worked, partially worked, and unworked shells of the genera Strombus, Turbinella, Pisania, and Polinices, plaques that once formed part of masks or mosaics, fragments that appear to be coral and marine polyps, and other ornaments such as labrets and an ear spool (Figure 2). Bone artefacts included spindle whorls, teeth and molars from humans and animals, perforated and unperforated feline fangs, pendants, tubes, ornaments, labrets, beads, worked and partially worked bones, awls, and other objects such as needles and deer antlers (Figure 3). The ceramic miscellanea consisted of undecorated spindle whorls, decorated spindle whorls, pendants, beads, spheres, flat discs, discs with incomplete perforations, miniature vessels, stamps, rings, hollow hemispheres with a central cavity, and other objects including a pipe, an ear-spool plug, and a fragment of an axe decorated with incised motifs (Figure 4). The stone miscellanea was represented by decorated and undecorated spindle whorls, jade beads, jade and pyrite plaques that formed part of masks or mosaics, fragments of jade, spheres, slate fragments, alabaster objects, jade pendants, an obsidian ear spool, and other artefacts (Figure 5).