Head Pendant 6th-9th century Maya (Mexico or Guatemala) A Maya sculptor created this triangular pendant from a large core of bright apple-green jadeite mined or found as a river cobble in the Motagua River Valley in what is now Guatemala. It depicts a human face wearing a zoomorphic headdress in the upper portion, and the lower portion may reference the snout of a crocodile as seen from above; note the protruding nostrils just below the chin of the face. The jaws of the creature in the headdress frame the rounded, conventionalized face, and the figure wears circular, adorned earflares. The artist sculpted the very hard jadeite with stone blades by incision, polishing, and the use of micro-drills with an abrasive and binding agent. The reverse of the pendant contains an incised hieroglyphic inscription of ten signs arranged in five rows and two columns. The brief text commemorates two dates in the life of a ruler whose name eludes precise decipherment. The first, which refers to the acc