Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

Two bones formed the north boundary for the grouping.
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These were both carved on their upper portion with a twist
design, with each bone being slightly different. The top of
the bones were rounded off and curved up like a shoehorn. Below
the carving were two incised glyphs whose flawless execution
helps in their decipherment. Several centimeters on, the
plain end of the bone tapers almost to a point.
As they lay, the upper of the two bones had the carved
surface up and the lower bone had the carved face down in the
bed of cinnabar on which both the bones lay.
The whole surface of the two bones was polished. The
Tikal emblem glyph bone is 24.5 cm. long with ca. 13.7 cm. of
carved surface. The other bone is 23.6 cm. long.
Shell “Tweezers” 117A-76 Photo Opposite page
Lying diagonally across the top of the uncarved end of
the incised bones lay a “tweezer” handle of cut pieces of
nacreous shell fit together with a white adhesive to form a
rectangular solid with a collar at each end. One end does not
have a shell piece but is filled with the adhesive and there
is a small hollow where the tweezer ends were placed.
Next to the end of the handle was a pair of tweezer
ends of nacreous shell, one of two pairs found next to the
handle, and judging from their size and shape, those which
belonged to the handle. On the interior of both were traces
of adhesive.