The Mayans were all about jewelry and creating handcrafted pieces of art. They discovered jade stones and made a lot of jewelry out of these precious gems. Jewelry was very important to the Mayans and it determined social class in most cases. Jewelry shaped like animals were especially popular. Mayan headdresses were an important symbol of power. Mayan masks were made from many different jewels. They were made from gold, obsidian, stone, wood, and even shell, which would be inlayed, or encrusted with tiny pieces of jade arranged in a mosaic pattern.
Maya art was crazy-vibrant and this was because of a certain type of blue they used called “maya-blue” which was an indigo dye which came from a plant called “anil” which they combined with a clay called palygorskite. Towards the end of the “early post classic” era their jade supply started running short and they had to find other stones to adorn themselves with. During this time they started using different types of greenstone such as serpentine, as well as turquoise which is so popular today.
The Metropolitan has a beautiful collection of Mayan artifacts and jewelry. I saw a pair of “Earflare” Frontals which would be mounted through the earlobe. These were made out of jade and just looking at this pair of earflares you could tell the Mayans were all about agriculture and plantlife. This shows up in the colors of the jewelry which were green and blue hues and on top of the earthy colors, the design happened to be floral. This was very interesting to see because it was from an entire different era and despite its very small size (only about two inches) it was fascinating seeing something so old and yet so modern looking. Below is a picture of the Earflares themselves.
