| Jade
Jade objects, including scepters, imitation stingray spines, tiny statuettes, masks, and other ritual artifacts, have been found in many MesoAmerican tombs. The Aztecs believed that the mineral could cure diseases of the liver, kidney and spleen which led the Spanish to call it piedra de ijada or "loin stone". Jadeite was mined in Costa Rica and traded up and down the Central American isthmus in pre-Colonial times. It was so valuable that the Aztecs sometimes pillaged tomb and temple sites in search of the gem.
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