Guatemala

In Guatemala, the Maya sawed jade, harder than steel, with a string and sand.

Maya jade came from a river valley in eastern Guatemala. The stone is too hard to cut with metal, and the Maya had no metal tools anyway.

Instead, craftsmen fetched sand at least as hard as the jade: quartz sand, or garnet from the same valley. The sand was mixed with water and placed in a groove in the stone. Then a cord was drawn back and forth in the groove. It was the grains of sand that did the cutting.

Sawing through a block ten centimetres thick could take more than a hundred hours. From the jade they made jewellery, masks and royal ornaments.