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Muiraquitãs from the collection of the Pará State Museu do Encontro (Meeting Museum) in the city of Belém (Brazil), indicating the principal mineral components, as defined by XRD and SEM/EDS.
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Muiraquitãs, lithic artifacts found in the Amazon basin, have been considered to be Asian in origin, or to have been sculpted by the legendary female Amazon warriors. These pieces are now very rare, and are found mainly in museum collections. In the present study, the mineralogical and chemical content of 23 specimens from the collections of the Mu...
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Citations
... These studies of jade and greenstone objects are generally divided geographically, with considerable interest in China [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and Central America [4,7,10,12,[22][23][24][25][26]. Most of these studies are focused on objects from one particular archaeological site; however, a few studies, including the current one, focus on collections from a range of sites [23,24,27,28]. Scientific studies on greenstones typically involve at least one characterization technique to identify the minerals present as well as the determination of elemental composition. ...
Jade and greenstone objects have been held in high regard by many cultures stemming from their limited geological availability and their unique optical and mechanical properties. Jade and greenstone objects symbolized life, fertility, and eternity to early Mesoamerican people. In recent years, scientific studies on jade and greenstone objects have been performed to establish provenance and usage, identify composition, and verify the presence of a particular material. These studies of jade and greenstone objects are generally divided geographically, with considerable interest in China and Central America. Most studies are focused on objects from one particular archaeological site; however, a few studies have focused on collections from a range of sites. The use of multiple complimentary analytical techniques has been shown to be the most effective method for characterizing and understanding the technical information obtained from cultural heritage objects. In our study, we examine a set of Mesoamerican jade and greenstone objects from the collection at the Dallas Museum of Art using multiple non-destructive techniques, including scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and handheld X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. We briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. Lastly, we present the results from our study and discuss them in their archaeological and historical context.
... These beads show a mineralogy, texture and iconography similar to those described in the Nahuange-Tairona area. In addition, a cylindrical variscite bead found in the Amazon basin and currently housed in the collections of the Museus de Gemas in Brazil (Resque Meirelles and Costa, 2012) shows textural characteristics, such as its intense green color, vitreous luster and porous surface, similar to the Nahuange-Tairona beads studied. This may indicate large-scale relations that may include Andean-Mesoamerican contacts inferred from the finding of pieces of high symbolic value made in shells of tropical seas (Spondylus pictorum and Conus fergusoni) in archaeological sites in Ecuador, Peru and as far as Chile (Marcos, 1998), suggesting rather long-distance trade routes. ...
Variscite is a rare mineral that offers new opportunities for research on the mobility of raw materials in America during pre-Hispanic times through the provenance study of the source material. In this article we address a detailed characterization of the texture, mineralogy and chemical composition of the variscite beads belonging to the Nahuange (100–1000 AD) and Tairona (1000–1600 AD) societies of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region (northern Colombia), which we compare with the known deposit located in the Gran Roque Island, Venezuela. The presented evidence proves the origin of the material from this location, allowing the interpretation of the distribution models of northern South American archaeological variscite.
Indeed, different findings of beads made of variscite have shown that this mineral could have a much wider distribution that extends to the Northern Andes, the Amazon basin and the Caribbean islands, though other not yet discovered geological sources cannot be discarded. This is shown by the discovery of variscite beads at the Nueva Esperanza Archaeological Site south of Bogotá and in the archaeological records of the Nariño culture (Colombia), the Amazon basin in Brazil, Aruba and the Lesser Antilles.
... Muiraquitãs são artefatos líticos polidos, confeccionados em minerais ou rochas esverdeadas (geralmente jadeítas, tremolitaactinolita, serpentinitas, nefritas, amazonitas etc.) e apresentam furos laterais que sugerem seu uso como pingente ou adorno (Silva et al. 1998, Costa et al. 2002b, Meirelles e Costa 2012, Navarro et al. 2017, Navarro e Prous 2020). Ainda é incerto se os muiraquitãs eram confeccionados em alguns poucos centros de produção ou se eram produzidos em vários locais diferentes (Neves 2006 Embora a expressão muiraquitã fosse conhecida, a forma do objeto não era claramente definida, foi Barata (1954) (Boomert 1987, Queffelec et al. 2018, Falci et al. 2020, Costa et al. 2020 ...
Em salvamento arqueológico realizado pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia da UFPA em 2011 no porto da cidade de Santarém (Pará) foi encontrado um pingente lítico com as características morfológicas de um muiraquitã, aqui denominado de muiraquitã Santarém, portanto um dos primeiros em ambiente contextualizado no vale amazônico. Enquanto se tem em mente que esses pingentes sejam elaborados em jade nefrítico, o Santarém, embora lítico e de cor cinza esverdeado, foi entalhado em clorita-sericita-quartzo xisto, uma rocha metamórfica de baixo grau recorrente. Mesmo assim o achado é raro, em função do design e uso, além de representar objetos pré-históricos socioculturais, que no design encontram paralelos na pré-história ao longo da costa atlântica amazônica e nas ilhas do Caribe.
... Cody (1993), based on old citations that we could not find for reading, mentions Mount Roraima and other localities in Brazil. Despite this, no recent work can confirm this: Harlow et al. (2006) andO'Donoghue (2006) stand for a complete lack of evidence of nephrite in Mesoamerica and South America, while Meirelles and da Costa (2012) seem to locate nephrite in Brazil as a common fact. ...
... Estudos mais recentes, como "Gifts of the Amazon: 'green stones' pendants and beads as items of ceremonial exchange in Amazonia and the Caribbean" (Boomert, 1987), "Muyrakytã ou Muiraquitã: um talismã arqueológico em jade procedente da Amazônia: aspectos físicos, mineralogia, composição química e sua importância etnogeológica" (Costa et al., 2002b) e "Mineralogy and Chemistry of the green stone artifacts (muiraquitãs) of the museums of the Brazilian State of Pará" (Meirelles;Costa, 2012), trazem importantes contribuições para a construção do conhecimento acerca das pedras verdes. Boomert (1987) faz uma discussão acerca do comércio de longa distância, que envolveu diversos centros de produção e uma rede de trocas de bens de luxo e prestígio, em contexto ritual, entre as sociedades amazônicas pré-coloniais e o Caribe. ...
Resumo O muiraquitã é um artefato arqueológico raro e característico das sociedades pré-coloniais do baixo Amazonas e de área circum-caribenha. Foi confeccionado por meio de diversos tipos de minerais, sendo os mais conhecidos os de pedra verde, sobretudo a nefrita. Embora sua função ainda seja desconhecida, a literatura etnográfica e arqueológica sugere que estes objetos conotavam símbolos de poder, haja vista a ampla rede de circulação em que estavam inseridos. Este artigo descreve um muiraquitã encontrado na estearia da Boca do Rio, região das estearias maranhenses. As análises foram feitas por MicroRaman, com auxílio do equipamento de bancada BWTEK, da GemExpert, difração de raios X (DRX), evidenciando que o artefato foi confeccionado em tremolita/actinolita, um mineral inexistente no Maranhão. Propõe-se uma possibilidade acerca da cadeia operatória do artefato e analisam-se as possíveis redes regionais de interação comercial e simbólica nas quais este muiraquitã esteve envolvido.
... In northern South America, ornaments, especially frog-shaped pendants known as muiraquitãs, have been widely exchanged, as suggested by their wide occurrence across the Amazon and the Guianas during the late pre-Colonial period (Barata, 1954;Boomert, 1987;Moraes et al., 2014;Falci and Rodet, 2016;Rostain, 2006Rostain, , 2014. The muiraquitãs are made of varied raw materials, including jadeite, nephrite, albite, variscite-strengite, and quartz (Meirelles and Costa, 2012). Bivalve and gastropod shells, common raw materials on the islands and the coast of South America, have also been shaped into biomorphic ornaments (Antczak and Antczak, 2006;Lammers-Keijsers, 2007;Murphy et al., 2000;Vargas Arenas et al., 1997). ...
Figurative ornaments displaying biomorphic and geometric designs have often been recovered from pre-Colonial sites in the Caribbean and northern South America. Such artefacts are held in museum and private collections, but often have not been the focus of systematic research. On the other hand, recent research into ornaments worldwide has focused on simple beads and automorphic shell ornaments. In this article, microwear analysis is used to assess technologies of production and use-wear of figurative shell ornaments from north-central Venezuela. It is our goal to reflect on the challenges posed by such collections, in terms of reproducibility of traces through experiments, post-depositional and curatorial modifications, and the complexity of past attachment configurations. The underlying question is how to deal with the limitations posed by the very nature of the studied collection in terms of preservation and of the high skill required in the reproduction of figurative artefacts.
Este artigo apresenta os resultados da análise dos vasilhames com apliques de anuros das cerâmicas arqueológicas oriundas de coletas sistemáticas nas estearias maranhenses associando-os às espécies biológicas. Parte-se, portanto, de um estudo interdisciplinar que busca atentar para a importância deste tipo de abordagem ainda pouco utilizada pelos arqueólogos brasileiros, sobretudo na Amazônia, cuja imagética arqueológica associada a sapos e rãs é recorrente no material arqueológico desta região. Apresentam-se os apliques de anuros, sua análise tecnológica, as formas dos vasilhames e a identificação das espécies, fomentando a interpretação dos resultados com enfoque na relação entre cultura material e biologia.
Apresentamos aqui três estatuetas líticas inéditas encontradas entre o alto curso do rio Trombetas e o alto curso do rio Tapajós e uma quarta, possivelmente proveniente da Ilha de Caviana. Essas peças são feitas em rochas duras, esculpidas por picoteamento e representam figuras zoomorfas quadrúpedes muito semelhantes entre si. As já famosas esculturas em rocha do Baixo Amazonas (os muiraquitãs e os "ídolos de pedra") em nada se assemelham a esta nova categoria de artefatos. Além dessas estatuetas, descrevemos uma peça em forma de boto cor de rosa, encontrada por um ribeirinho no Lago Sapucuá (Oriximiná, PA) e que provavelmente pertence ao grupo dos "ídolos".
