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182 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 47 December 12, 1944 An Inscription on a Jade Probably Carved at Piedras negras Tatiana Proskouriakoff hieroglyphs. Five holes drilled with a pointed tool probably served to fasten the ornament and to attach to it beads or other embellishments. One of the holes was drilled through a glyph apparently after the .inscription was made. This tends to confirm the assumption, otherwise not susceptible of proof, that the glyphs and the carving are contemporaneous. The head resembles ornaments worn by the principal figure of Maya stelae, particularly the ornamental heads attached to the figure’s belt. On such ornamental heads, the animal headdress occurs most frequently in the early period (cf. Stelae 9 at Tikal, 27 at Yaxchilan, E and 3 at Copan). Later, the headdress is replaced by a simple knot with its ends falling to each side of the face, but it recurs sporadically , as on Stela C at Copan and on Stela 5 at Tikal. At Piedras Negras, however, several stelae of the Late Classic period have ornamental heads with the animal headdress (see Stelae 2, 4, and 13). On Stela 10 at this site such a head is particularly clearly depicted as an ornament on a cushion. Although the features, shown in front view and in low relief cannot be compared with fairness to the full-round carving of the jade, in a general way it may be worth while to note that the excellent sculptural tradition of Piedras Negras, including as it does sculpture in the round, is entirely consistent with the style of the Cenote carving, which, especially in profile, is reminiscent of the faces portrayed on Piedras Negras stelae. The connection of the jade head with Piedras Negras, however, is more clearly demonstrated by its inscription. The text begins on the top of the Finely carved jades were doubtless regarded by the Maya as objects of great value. They could be passed onfromgenerationtogenerationandcouldbetraded in distant parts. In most cases one cannot rely on the circumstances of their discovery to evince their origin , and often the only clue is the style of the carving itself, at best an uncertain criterion, especially since conclusions must be based largely on analogy with arts of different technique. Fortunately, a few jades were inscribed with dates, and when these dates can be related to inscriptions on monuments they sometimes furnish more reliable evidence than does either style or stratigraphy. The piece described here is one of the rare examples which can be dated and placed with reasonable certainty, even though the Old Empire site of Piedras Negras, whence it came, has no known historical connection with the distant city of Chichen Itza where it was found among the offerings of the famous Sacred Cenote. It is now in the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology in Harvard University and is here described and reproduced with the kind permission of the Museum. The jade is about 8.5 cm in its greatest dimension and is carved in half-round to represent a human head wearing an animal (serpent or jaguar) headdress . The style is idealistic and keenly sensitive to natural form, qualities characteristic of the best period of classic Maya sculpture. The back of the head is hollowed out, as if to reduce its weight, and along the flat edge of the hollow and on the top of the headdress runs an inscription of lightly incised An Inscription on a Jade Probably Carved at Piedras Negras 183 headdress with two horizontal rows of glyphs: Although one dot of the day number is missing, the first two glyphs clearly record the Calendar Round date 7 Imix 14 Mac. The finer details of the month sign are obscure, but the elements characteristic of Mac are unmistakable. The next glyph is a familiar hand-and-tassel ending sign followed by 13 tuns (first glyph, lower line), and two glyphs of unknown meaning. From this record the unexpressed beginning of the count can be calculated as 7 Imix 19 Pax. On the back, the inscription is resumed at the lower left, but here a piece is broken out and the first three glyphs are missing. The fourth records 7...

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