The master craftsmen at Jades, S.A., produce replicas of many famous jadeite masks, tools, and utensils. This is a replica of the Plumed Serpent and Jaguar God, a jadeite mosaic lidded vessel found in Tikal, Guatemala. Poised as if to speak, the original Mayan portrait jar has been dated 758 A.D. Photo: Anna M. Miller

Until recently, serious gem and jewelry collectors and buyers looked to Asia for the purchase of fine jadeite. Traditionally thought of as a Chinese product, but principally from Myanmar (formerly Burma), jadeite has been cut and shipped from Hong Kong to the west for decades. Today, North American jade enthusiasts are finding jadeite is being mined and cut closer to home. Fine jadeite material in natural colors ranging from a bright, intense green to soft lilac, blue, pink, white, and yellow is available from Guatemala, in Central America. Although jadeite occurs in several locales around the world, Guatemala has been the least-known as a producer of this material.

“Jade” is the generic term describing two distinct stones: nephrite and jadeite. While the two are visually similar, they are different in mineralogical characteristics. Nephrite and jadeite are both white in their pure state, with all colors caused by inclusions of other minerals. Jadeite is the harder and denser of the two, with a richer, more brilliant range of colors. For these reasons and because of its scarcity, jadeite is the most precious and sought-after type of jade. Guatemalan jade is jadeite.

That jadeite in serious quantity and in a rainbow of natural colors (no heat treatments or other enhancements are used in the Guatemalan jadeite) is being mined in Guatemala comes as no surprise to researching geologists and archaeologists who have long believed that all the native Central American ancient cultures - Olmec, Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Aztec, and Maya - got their jadeite from Guatemala. In Jades of Mesoamerica, author and jade expert Fred Ward has compiled exhaustive research on Guatemalan jadeite used in the ancient Maya culture. He writes that discoveries of jadeite in the Motagua Valley area of Guatemala (also known as the Motagua Fault Zone) confirm the country as the source for most if not all of the jadeite used by Mesoamericans for three thousand years.

There are some visual differences in the jadeites of Myanmar and Guatemala, the most obvious of which is color. Although some individual pieces of Guatemalan jadeite cannot be separated from their Burmese counterparts (particularly after they are worked into jewelry), the majority of materials have distinct color and often textural differences. For example, the intense and highly saturated Imperial green of Burmese jadeite is not often found in the Guatemalan material. This does not mean it doesn't exist in Guatemala, rather it simply means that at this time, ongoing exploration has failed to produce any sizeable quantity of this highly desirable color.

What is abundant is jadeite in natural colors of lilac, blue, pink, white, yellow, black, and a unique black with natural precious metal inclusions, along with many shades of green. Guatemala is now producing the world's newest jadeite colors, including “rainbow jadeite” (several colors in one slab or boulder). Ward is particularly fond of the black jadeite. “Black jadeite from the Motagua Valley area,” he says, “represents the creamiest, richest, and best black jadeite in the world, far exceeding Burma's darkest, which is gray and can only be sold as charcoal.” As far as the textural differences in the jadeites of Burma and Guatemala, a high percentage of Guatemalan material has a coarse, granular crystalline structure, whereas the Burmese material generally exhibits a finer texture.

Galactic Gold is the name given to this black jadeite with natural inclusions of precious heavy metals. Laboratory analysis has confirmed the identity of gold, silver, pyrite, and platinum, among others. Precious black jadeite with heavy metal inclusions had never been seen before this material was discovered by the Ridingers in 1987. Photo: Juan C. Menendez

For most people, the word “jade” evokes exotic images of richly laden Chinese emperors. Few people realize the rich jade history of the Americas. To the Pre-Columbian people of Mesoamerica, jade meant life, fertility, and power; it was revered above gold. The association of the aristocracy with the brighter greens indicated that they valued jade above all other materials. Just as bright green jade was reserved for Chinese emperors, in Mesoamerica, bright green jadeite was reserved for kings and royalty. As an example of its desirability, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés was given four jade beads as tribute by Aztec leader Moctezuma, with the counsel that each bead was worth two loads of gold. The Spanish conquistadores, lusting only for gold, dismissed these treasures as nothing more than green rocks.

Following the Spanish conquest of the native culture and religion, and in order to hide the jadeite from the conquerors, Indians withdrew from jade mining and carving for generations. So much time lapsed and so many generations passed that no one knew where to find jade; the mines were lost to the world from the 1500s until the late 20th century.

The rediscovery of the Maya jadeite source is as exciting as any Indiana Jones movie. In the 1960s, archeologists followed scientific work begun after World War II by William Foshag, the Smithsonian's curator of geology. They were all searching for the source of Mesoamerican jadeite. Jade is found in several locales in Guatemala: in the departments of Izabal, El Progreso, Zacapa, Baja Verapaz, and El Quiche. It takes an expert's eye to find jade because the boulders are generally covered with thick, black-brown, or gray rind, making it almost impossible to distinguish jade from ordinary rock.

One of the most fascinating of the jadeite discovery stories is the true adventure of an American couple, Mary Lou and Jay Ridinger. In 1975, Mary Lou Ridinger, an archeologist, used her extensive background knowledge of ancient Mayan culture and art to concentrate on a single location in Guatemala, the remote Motagua Valley. It was a “Eureka!” moment for her and husband Jay when the search finally paid off with the discovery of in situ jadeite boulders. Later, further exploration in the valley produced jadeite in a variety of colors.

Using the basic designs of her ancestors, this master carver is aided by a power tool to speed up carving on tough jadeite. Photo: Anna M. Miller.

Even more exciting, the Ridingers identified centuries-old Mayan jadeite work sites with tools and small bits of pottery where outdoor carving factories had actually operated. Still another mystery was solved when the Ridingers found an in situ source of the foamy blue-green jadeite that was favored by Olmec carvers and often found in Costa Rican graves. That particular discovery proved that both the Olmec and Maya mined jade in the Motagua Valley. Due to the diligent work of the Ridingers, the Mayan jade quarries were reopened for the first time since the Spanish conquest.

The Ridingers' company, Jades, S.A., opened in 1974 and remains the largest jade mining and cutting operation in Guatemala. The Jades, S.A. factory showroom, in Antigua, Guatemala, has become internationally known for its variety of beautiful jadeite jewelry and fine quality carvings. The jade factory is well known among tourists, international celebrities, and politicians; in March 1999, President Clinton spent two hours at the factory learning about jadeite and picking out gifts for staff and family. Museums have commissioned Jades, S.A. to produce replicas of famous Mayan jade masks. The handmade replicas (all labeled as such) are produced by Mayan descendants who are just beginning to realize the impact local jadeite had on their ancestors.