PRECOLUMBIAN MOTHER OF PEARL SHELL ORNAMENT

From an advanced collection of a Detroit doctor who had a home in Acapulco and purchased there. Identified as Mayan warrior’s badges with a contemporary reference supporting that attribution. In Collectible Beads, Liu, p.140, an example is identified as from Bahia C.500 BC-500 AD. The Bahia culture was on the east coast of South America and the time frame accords. It’s likely that trade was established between the two cultures and that both attributions are correct. Still they are too obscure for certainty. The collection contained about 20 examples and but for the two others cited here, we know of no others. This example is about 5/8” x ¾” and evidently was sewn to the owner’s garment.