Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

finished surface is the flare face which is even and highly
polished and covered with cinnabar.
184
The pendants are long and tubular, almost square in
cross-section with two grooves at each end filled with cinnabar,
and 11.2 cm. long with a cross section of ca. .85 x .9
cm. The color matches that of the flares (ca. 2.5G-7/2, 6/2
slightly mottled greyish green) but slightly brighter green,
ca. 10GY-7/2, 6/2, spots of 4/4 and all highly polished.
There are a large number of spherical jade beads in the
vicinity of the earplug assemblage and it is possible that at
least one was used as a tie-piece or pendant at the end of
the rectangular pendant.
Earplug Assemblage Plan #59 117A-66a-e 117A-67a-e Figs. 83
Thoroughly mixed in with the multitude of pieces of the
jade necklace were parts for a jade earplug assemblage. For-
tunately, some of the pieces of the assemblage were specially
shaped and distinguishable from the necklace, but some of the
pendants were of similar shapes.
Each earplug set consisted of a minimum of five pieces:
two flares, one with a throat disk; and two pendants; there
may have been at least a sixth piece because for the north
(right) ear there was a perforated pearl in the correct position
to be a tie-piece for the end of the large pendant (Fig.
83). Luckily, the earplug pieces of the assemblage were still