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Mayan - Face Pendant - Walters 2009208 - View A
Summary
Jadeite is a dense alumina silicate of the pyroxene mineral family. The preferred stone for denoting status and sacredness throughout Mesoamerica, its value was based on its relative scarcity, the polished stone's bright, shiny surface , its translucent colors (ranging from light green to a rich blue-green), and the challenge of carving the stone due to the stone's hardness. In addition to the impressive visual qualities and scarcity, jadeite was symbolically linked to the miracle of the earth's fecundity, the maize god, and the life-giving promise of green plants and blue-green water. Together, these attributes made jadeite the most valuable of all materials to adorn the nobility and the gods. The Maya also fashioned adornments from similar green-colored stones whose visual properties resemble those of jadeite. It is difficult to discern the correct geological identification of these adornments without technical analyses.
This pendant exemplifies the aesthetic variety and technical expertise of Late Classic Maya jadeite carvers. The pendant is carved in the standardized frontal rendering of a noble person wearing the formal head gear of the ruling elite, with unique features that document more than five hundred years of the jadeite carver's art. The flat pendants exemplify Middle and Late Classic figural pendant styles with the distinctive headdresses and impressive jadeite earflares and bead necklaces worn by the nobility.
Mesoamerican civilizations were a group of ancient cultures that inhabited Central and South America, including parts of modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Mesoamerican civilization is known for its advanced and sophisticated cultures, which developed complex systems of writing, art, architecture, and science. The Mesoamerican civilization is generally considered to have begun around 2500 BC and to have reached its peak between AD 600 and AD 900. The Mesoamerican civilization is known for its impressive achievements, including the development of the Maya and Aztec cultures, which are among the most well-known of the ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. The pre-Columbian civilizations were extraordinary developments in human society and culture, ranking with the early civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Like the ancient civilizations of the Old World, those in the New World were characterized by kingdoms and empires, great monuments and cities, and refinements in the arts, metallurgy, and writing; the ancient civilizations of the Americas also display in their histories similar cyclical patterns of growth and decline, unity and disunity.
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