Greenstones and the World of the Dead: New Insights into the Amazonian Muiraquitãs

RESEARCH NOTE © ARQUEOLOGÍA IBEROAMERICANA 56 (2025): 173-178. ISSN 1989-4104. <https://www.laiesken.net/arqueologia/>. GREENSTONES AND THE WORLD OF THE DEAD: NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE AMAZONIAN MUIRAQUITÃS Alexandre Guida Navarro Archaeology Laboratory, Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), Brazil (* [email protected]) Received: October 15, 2025. Modified: November 9, 2025. Accepted: November 13, 2025. Published: November 20, 2025. Edited & Published by Pascual Izquierdo [P. I. Egea]. Arqueol. Iberoam. Open Access Journal. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0). https://n2t.net/ark:49934/396. https://purl.org/aia/5619. Figure 1. Map of some cultures that made greenstone artifacts. Source: LARQ/UFMA. – 174 – ARQUEOL. IBEROAM. 56 (2025) • ISSN 1989-4104 ABSTRACT . Greenstone artifacts, or muiraquitãs, were objects of luxury and prestige appreciated by Amerindians throughout all pre-Columbian America. Generally these artifacts are shaped like a toad or frog. This paper presents a new discussion over these greenstones associated with the world of the dead in Amazon and Mesoamerica, highlighting spheres of interaction between both cultural areas. KEYWORDS . Muiraquitã, greenstones, stilt villages, Amazon, Mesoamerica, chacmool. RESUMEN . Los artefactos de piedra verde o muiraquitãs fueron objetos de lujo y prestigio apreciados por los pueblos amerindios en toda la América precolombina. Generalmente, estos artefactos tienen forma de sapo o rana. Este estudio presenta una nueva discusión sobre estas piedras verdes asociadas con el mundo de los muertos en la Amazonia y Mesoamérica, evidenciando esferas de interacción entre ambas áreas culturales. PALABRAS CLAVE . Muiraquitã, piedras verdes, palafitos, Amazonia, Mesoamerica, chacmol. INTRODUCTION: FROGS AND TOADS Muiraquitãs is a Tupian indigenous word that means “frog ornaments.” They are rare greenstone artifacts, shaped like a toad or frog and with side holes, which suggest their use as a pendant or ornament. The making of greenstone artifacts seems to have been a common phenomenon throughout pre-Columbian America (Taube 1992) (Figure 1). Among the Maya, jade greenstone was associated with the power of the ruler and was commonly found in royal tombs in the form of beads, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and funerary masks. As in the case of the tomb of Pakal in the city of Palenque, where the set of this stone found there weighed several kilos (Sharer 2003; Martin & Grube 2002; Navarro 2007). Greenstone ornaments are also characteristic of the Isthmus-Antilles region, showing that the connections between Mesoamerica and the Caribbean were quite active. The political-social interactions between the human groups that inhabited the Antilles and the Colombian region covered an area that extends from northwestern Venezuela to the western portion of Honduras (Rodríguez 2013). AMAZON GREENSTONES In the Amazon, the main area of production of muiraquitãs seems to have been the region of Santarém, Brazil, inhabited by the Tapajós Indians. These stones were found both in the lower Nhamundá River and on the right bank of the Trombetas River (Barata 1954). Based on historical and ethnographic documentation, several meanings have been proposed for the use of muiraquitãs. Most authors agree that these are objects of luxury and prestige used in spheres of interaction between indigenous elites, such as wedding gifts worn by women in their headdresses and necklaces worn by shamans and rulers (Roosevelt 1991; Gomes 2001; Costa et al. 2002; Navarro et al. 2017; Navarro & Rostain 2023; Navarro 2024a, 2024b) (Figure 2). Boomert (1987) recognizes three areas of greenstone production in South America and the Caribbean: 1) the lower Amazon, with the Nhamundá, Trombetas, and Tapajós rivers as its area of influence, associated with the Incised-Dotted and Polychrome archaeological traditions; 2) northern Surinam, associated with the Kwatta Figure 2. Muiraquitã appearing on the headdress of an indigenous woman of high social status. Source: Gomes (2001). – 175 – ARQUEOL. IBEROAM. 56 (2025) • ISSN 1989-4104 ceramic complex of the Arauquinoid tradition; and 3) the Antilles, whose batrachian specimens are common in the context of the Saladoid tradition. The muiraquitã presented in this article was found in a pre-colonial stilt house in the Eastern Amazon, Maranhão, Brazil, in 2014. Most of these settlements are dated between AD 800 and 1100 (Navarro 2018). This artifact is made of tremolite-actinolite, according to petrography studies carried out in Raman (Navarro et al. 2017). The piece weighs 5.12 g and is 2.92 cm long, 1.81 cm at the waist, 1.70 cm wide at the head, Figure 3. The muiraquitã of the stilt house from Boca do Rio, eastern Amazon, Brazil. Source: LARQ/UFMA. 0.90 cm wide at the neck, and 0.4 cm thick, having proportions similar to those evidenced by most of the muiraquitãs found in the Amazon (Navarro et al. 2017) (Figure 3). The muiraquitã from the Boca do Rio stilt village has three well-defined sections: head, torso, and lower limbs. The head, with batrachian and human features, is outlined by three sub-horizontal planes. The first of these forms a horn or crown in a bipartite shape, delimited by grooves that outline the second composition, where the eyes are oval and designed—in high Figure 4. Feathers on the head of the muiraquitã resemble a harpy. Source: LARQ/UFMA. – 176 – ARQUEOL. IBEROAM. 56 (2025) • ISSN 1989-4104 relief—on two quadrangular planes. This is reminiscent of a human face, whose extremities are part of the batrachian face. Finally, the third part consists of a groove in the piece and a rectangular band, which crosses the piece along its longitudinal axis. Tremolite-actinolite does not exist in the region of the stilt houses, nor has it been documented in Maranhão until now. For this reason, the discovery of the artifact in an archaeological context is extremely rare in the archaeology of the South American lowlands. Ten years after its discovery, a new reading of the artifact in question can be made (Navarro 2024). A closer look reveals that, if it is cut longitudinally along an imaginary line, the figure of two human heads with bird feathers can be observed looking in opposite directions. Harpies (Harpia harpyja) are important animals in South American indigenous mythology, whose feathers were used as ornaments. This perspective that shows the transFigure 5. The muiraquitã from the Boca do Rio stilt village in dorsal decubitus, resembling a Mesoamerican chacmool. Source: LARQ/UFMA and Ziko van Dijk. – 177 – ARQUEOL. IBEROAM. 56 (2025) • ISSN 1989-4104 formation of the bodies of animals and humans is inserted in the discussion on shamanism in the lowlands of South America (Figure 4). THE WORLD OF THE DEAD In the Amazon, the world of the dead is a celestial place whose sacred geography is mediated by the shaman. Reichel-Dolmatoff (1988: 23) pointed out that shamanism is a “coherent system of religious beliefs and practices, which seeks to organize and explain the interrelationships between the cosmos, nature, and man.” The shaman is, therefore, the possessor of sensitive knowledge that reconciles nature and human practices with the mythological traditions of the group, acting as a mediator of the cosmos through ritual actions such as dances, speeches, intonations, and songs. The shaman, ultimately, consecrates and perpetuates the social memory of the group he depicted through the experimentation of his experiences (Santos-Granero 2009). According to Gomes (2001), the closed eyes of individuals depicted in ceramic figurines would mean that they are dead. This seems to be a custom in several parts of pre-Columbian America, as in the recurring images of dead human beings figured with their eyes closed in Aztec and Mixtec codices. We suggest that another piece of evidence of death in Amazonian indigenous cosmology is the depiction of people reclining or lying down with their hands on their abdomen. In this sense, if we observe the muiraquitã from the Boca do Rio stilt village, we can see a human being lying in a supine position. What draws our attention is his arms positioned laterally to the body with his hands flexed on his abdomen, reminiscent of the typical positions of Mesoamerican sculptures called chacmool. Although the function of these statues is still debated, there is more or less a consensus among archaeologists that they were places where human beings were sacrificed (Sharer 2003) (Figure 5). Taking into account that these statues were dispersed throughout Mexico, reaching Costa Rica, it is likely that there was some social interaction between the stilt village indigenous and these peoples from Mesoamerica. We know, for example, that some gold artifacts deposited in the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá, in Mexico, came from South America, especially from Colombia (Coggins 1989). In this regard, although no chacmool statues have been found in the Maranhão stilt villages, it is likely that their sacrificial concept was learned in the making of greenstone artifacts, in this case the muiraquitãs. Thus, the muiraquitã could have had two functions: 1) it belonged to a prominent figure in society and was buried within the stilt village after funeral ceremonies that possibly involved human or animal sacrifices; 2) it belonged to a prominent figure in society, whose greenstone would refer to an important ancestor venerated with some sacrificial meaning. CONCLUSION Muiraquitãs greenstones were considered jewelry for their wearers, equivalent to a technology of prestige and luxury in pre-Columbian indigenous life. In addition, they could have been used by shamans in ritual processes in which the powers of animals were used to access the supernatural world. The absence of the mineral used to make the object in the stilt villages area, or even in nearby spaces, reinforces the idea of exchange and trade networks. Especially considering the differential and rare aspect of the greenstones for the region. Furthermore, the observation of the muiraquitã from Boca do Rio stilt village seen from the supine position resembles a Mesoamerican chacmool-style statue. This makes it likely that interaction networks and stylistic flows between Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Caribbean were much more common than we imagined. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Anna C. 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