The Jade in the Mayan Culture

For the cultures Pre-of Christopher Columbus of Mesoamérica, especially The Mayan, jade meant life, fertility, and to be able to; it was revered above the gold. The myth of the Mayan creation, speaks of 3 stones that were placed by the god of the Corn, in the foundation of the World, and it is quite common in places of Preclásico and Classic, to find ceramic containing 3 stones of Jade in the real funerals of the Mayan tombs. The aristocracy associated with the brilliant green and it was preferred on any other material, as well as the Green Jade was reserved the Chinese emperors. From before Columbus times, the transcendency of the jade in the Meso-American civilizations was captured in its ceremonial and ornamental expressions. Harder than the steel, of translucent brightness and with an astonishing registration of green tonalities, this stone had more value than the gold between the Olmecan, Mayan old cultures and Aztecs they granted to the jade a primordial meaning and they worked him with great dexterity and perfection.

They say the chronicles that when Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma were, this gave him/her with two bills of imperial jade, of green clear color, the most brilliant and valuable, and it recommended him/her that he/she didn't give it more than to their king, because each bill was worth more than "two loads of gold", what proves the importance of this rock. Axes and Masks. The Olmecan civilization was the first great culture of old Mexico and one of the first ones of the continent. The Olmecan, magnificent sculptors, related the jade with the corn and the agricultural fertility, for that reason they carried out axes of this material, finely figured that used to prepare the lands for the cultivation. The jade was associated with the concept of immortality: it was the stone of the eternity, of the sky and of the encouragement. The Mayan worshipped the jade like kings' funeral element and noblemen, to those who buried with wonderful masks on the face, the one which in turn carried a piece of this gem in the mouth: passport toward the sky when the spirit came out for the mouth. The jade facilitated the ascension further on to the, it was a very supreme one in the divine offerings in form of necklaces, bracelets, tobilleras, earmuffs, ornamental pieces, funeral glasses, masks, statues and tools. embroideries with jade.

Mask found in Tikal, their production dates of the late Classic (600 before C. - 929 before C.).

As stone of the encouragement, a jade bill before the nose denoted the breathing of the soul in the alive beings. The Aztecs mentioned that the jade exhaled humid and fresh encouragement. However, for the Mayan of the Classic period, the elements of encouragement were related more with the earmuffs and the flowers than with the nasal bills. A present element almost always in the Classic's Mayan earmuffs it was the jade tube that finishes with a bill.

Mask of Jade elaborated by artisans in Guatemala