Honduras Recovers Jaws Incrusted with Jade

The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) received two jaws with incrustations of jade and iron pyrite that belonged to the Mayan Indians. The pieces where recovered in Holland, and where then given to the IHAH manager by the Honduran sub-secretary of Foreign Affairs. The representative from the IHAH in Tegucigalpa said the pieces belonged to two Mayan characters that lived in Copan, Honduras, according to studies by Doctor Raphael Panhuysen of the Faculty of Archaeology from Leiden University in Holland. The jaws where delivered to the Embassy of Honduras in Holland anonymously, perhaps on behalf of some collector who considered that the best thing to do was to return the pieces to the country of origin. There are no more details of how the pieces got to Holland, or the anonymous person who gave them to the embassy of Honduras. The Honduran diplomat in Holland made the transfer of the two archaeological pieces to Honduras thru the secretary of Foreign Affairs so they could take it to the IHAH museum for permanent custody. Some of the teeth on the jaws are decorated with incrustations of Jade and Pyrite Iron, this was something that only the high class of the Mayan civilization who lived between 800 to 900 years B.C could have. After the Honduran embassy in Holland received both jaws, the Honduran government asked for them to be examined at the University of Leiden to determine their origin and document the dental decorations. The report also adds that the examination of both pieces was determined trough the strontium isotope analysis, which indicated the strontium proportion on the dental enamel is similar to the value found in the water of Copan River in Honduras. The analysis determined the origin of the individuals to whom the jaws belonged to belonged to what is now known as Copan Ruins, the most important archaeological site in Honduras. On December 13th, Honduran authorities also reclaimed 80 archaeological pieces that where owned illegally by some people. The pieces consisted on containers and other objects, some of them anthropomorphous, corresponding to the delayed classic period of the Mayas who lived west of Honduras between 600 and 900 A.C. By La Tribuna