Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

Jade Wrist Bracelets with Pendants of Fitted Shell Plan #’s
48, 49 117A-53, -54, -55 and -56 Photos 98, 99
190
The deceased was interred wearing jade bracelets of the
type commonly shown on stelae and pottery (the throne figure
on 117A-2 has the same kind) (Fig. 71). Each wristlet consisted
of 10 tubular jade beads best seen in the photographs.
There were no traces of cloth or hide between the jade and
the bone but it appeared there had been a cloth over the
right bracelet. Over the left bracelet was even more cloth.
All the beads had sunk into a deep layer of cinnabar and rotted
material which in one place went, from top to bottom:
117A-55d, cinnabar, thin layer of brown rot, and finally a
thick layer of dark brown rot.
West of the jade beads were about 46 pieces of shell,
the fragmented remains of pendants of an approximately elongated
spherical shape. The pendants were too broken and compressed
together to reconstruct more than a few.
Almost all the side pieces were pierced at the tapered
ends and these ends were to the east toward the jade beads to
which they were attached. They were, however, not individually
lined up with the jade pieces with which they were associated.
The pendants that were reconstructable showed that an
individual pendant consisted of from 9 to 5 pieces of shell.
Forming the sides and jadeward end were pieces with a curved
end; the bottom was usually a pentagonal shaped piece.