For the Maya and other peoples of ancient Mesoamerica, jade was the most prized possession of all. Great quantities of it were used to adorn Maya kings and nobles, both in life and in death. It was also used to appease the Gods, and more that 5,000 carved pieces have been recovered from the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá. Jade is immutable— impervious to fire, resistant to hammering, beautiful with its subtle patterns, seemingly eternal.
To the Maya its value exceeded any commercial or aesthetic estimation. Undoubtedly, its value was enhanced by its extreme hardness and the great difficulty it took to shape and carve it with the primitive tools available. There were no metal tools in the Maya world, so only wood and other stones were used to form it. Ancient craftsmen used stone grit to grind and saw it and finer grit to polish it. Hours and hours of hard labor were required to remove a few millimeters of jade.
Yet despite its value and beauty, the gold and silver crazed Spaniards had no use for jade. Within 50 years of the Spanish Conquest, all the sources for this rare stone were lost. Four hundred years later, Jay and Mary Lou Ridinger, American expatriates, rediscovered the ancient sources in the Motagua River Valley in Guatemala. Whether or not it was the sole source of Maya jade remains in doubt. The source of Olmec blue jade is even more elusive, and chemical matching of the sources of jade is difficult.
The Ridingers were not the first or the last to seek the elusive sources. Stone of Kings is an exciting story involving adventurers, geologists, archaeologists, entrepreneurs, looters, thieves, and a host of other characters. This nonfiction work reads like an adventure novel, with its fascinating cast of characters set in the wilds of Guatemala in the midst of a civil war. It is a perfect mix of science and adventure, of travelogue and history. Author Gerald Helferich has done a masterful job of capturing the drama and excitement of the hunt for ancient Mesoamerica’ most precious and elusive commodity.
