Tikal Burial 196 Tomb of the Jade Jaguar - Maya Archaeology

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of spondylus shell beads and three jade beads. The original
arrangement of the beads was difficult to ascertain because
most of the beads had either fallen amongst the bones or had
collapsed in a tangled piece on either side of the backbone.
One thing that was ascertainable was that the jade pieces had
been a center decoration and that it was possible that the
shell beads had been in one or two strands wide and that the
small beads had been placed between the large ones (there
were two distinct sizes of beads).
Two of the jade beads were identical, both being biconically
perforated lengthwise, with smaller perforations
crosswise at one end through which the beads may have been
strung. The color is mixed 2.5 G-7/4 and 5/8. A third piece
of jade may have served as a centerpiece. It was short and
fat, L 2.4, D 1.4 cm.; perforated lengthwise biconically. Its
brilliant green color varied from Munsell 2.5G-7/4 to 5/4.
The cataloger reconstructed the shell part of the belt
as with three small beads between two large oval ones. Seen
in the color photograph is all of the sequence that the author
was able to reconstruct in the short time available to
him. The number of small beads between the large beads may
have varied. The largest of the two distinct sized beads are
irregular in shape but generally with tapered ends, L ca. 2.5
GD 1.3 cm.; the other 65 beads are small and of a flattenedspherical
shape, perforated biconically or conically. The
largest bead is D 1.3, H 1 cm.; the smallest, D .8, H .4 cm.