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Show J Ancient Burial Ground in Highlands Yields Fine Examples of Jade. WASHINGTON. Discovery of artistic treasures in an ancient Mayan burial ground in the little known highlands of Guatemala was announced by Carnegie institute. They represent craftsmanship spanning seven or eight centuries and contribute new knowledge of the skill and customs of the Mayas. These Indians were the most bril- i liant exponents of higher aboriginal i culture in the Western world in the days before Columbus. Along with art objects unearthed from the mound including "the fin- i est single example of Mayan jade I carving yet brought to light" the Carnegie archeologists also found graves dating from the fourth or , fifth to the twelfth century of the Christian era. I Valuable Plaque. Most valued finding among scores of art objects and relics is a plaque or breastplate of jadeite dating from about the ninth century. Characteristic Char-acteristic of the greatest period of Mayan art, the plaque reveals the finesse of the ancient craftsmen who had no metal tools with which , to work. Another is a pottery figurine, fashioned to form a whistle the type of ritual whistles used in religious reli-gious ceremonies of the Maya. Still another is an alabaster vase, developed devel-oped from rough material to an object ob-ject of perfect shape and delicate i thinness despite the crude tools available to the artisans. Old Jade Carvings. ; Archeologists also found jade , carvings dating from the fourth or , fifth centuries which, when compared com-pared with the ninth-century jade, revealed the advances in craftsmanship crafts-manship made by the Mayas with the passage of time. 3 The first find made by the excavators exca-vators as they dug into the mound . was a large circular stone altar j slab about eight inches thick, much resembling a millstone. 1 Underneath it were 12 skulls, one upside down in the center, with a . number of jades piled on it and the j other 11, right side up, arranged in a ring around it. Researchers found several tombs 1 in the mound. The floor of one was painted a robin's egg blue rather j than the red which is usual in Mayan burials. |