Gorgets are thought to be insignia of office or status. Those with double or more holes may have been attached to clothing, or suspended from the neck as a necklace and worn as personal adornment.
The Maya greatly valued jade and wore it as a symbol of wealth and fertility. Typically only the wealthiest people, particularly kings, wore and were buried wearing jade. Jade’s color “was associated with the Maize God and evoked his eternal youth and vigor” (Meisler 2004).
