US museum head says Mexico should get Mayan jade
The director of Harvard's Peabody Museum said Tuesday he wants to return about 50 ancient carved Mayan jade pieces to Mexico, almost a century after a U.S. consul dredged the artifacts from the sacred lake at the ruins of Chichen Itza.
The artifacts were among hundreds of pieces taken to the United States by American consul Edward Herbert Thompson, who dredged up the bottom of the sacred lake between 1904 and 1910 to recover offerings deposited there by the Mayas.
William Fash, director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, said the idea would still have to be approved by authorities at the university and the museum, but that returning the artifacts could help scholars studying jade and jade-like stones which held both artistic and religious significance for the Mayas.
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The artifacts were among hundreds of pieces taken to the United States by American consul Edward Herbert Thompson, who dredged up the bottom of the sacred lake between 1904 and 1910 to recover offerings deposited there by the Mayas.
William Fash, director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, said the idea would still have to be approved by authorities at the university and the museum, but that returning the artifacts could help scholars studying jade and jade-like stones which held both artistic and religious significance for the Mayas.