Zinacantecas monopolized the trade with the Aztecs and 
probably also with other nations. They protected this 
trade by murdering the Aztec intruders when caught. 
The traders wanted the amber in order to make lip and 
ear plugs worn by warriors as a sign of bravery. Like- 
wise the Aztecs used amber in their temple rites, and it 
was employed for a similar purpose in the Catholic 
churches in the early days of Spanish rule. Today, the 
amber is collected primarily from landslides (Plate 
XLII) or along banks of rivers in central Chiapas, as 
rock exposures are infrequent in these densely forested 
areas. ‘The natives pick it up when fresh exposures occur 
and occasionally mine it. They may carve it crudely into 
ornaments themselves or sell it to women who make 
jewelry, particularly in the environs of Simojovel. The 
Indians here feel that the amber brings health and es- 
pecially that it will ward off the influence of the evil eye. 
Because of the importance of establishing the geologic 
age of amber, systematic paleontologic and stratigraphic 
studies of the amber-bearing beds were initiated in 1956. 
The amber-bearing beds in the Simojovel area are in a 
sequence of primarily marine calcareous sandstones and 
mudstones. The associated marine invertebrate fossils 
are being studied in stratigraphic sequence by J. W. 
Durham and his students. All amber-bearing localities 
reported thus far are now considered to occur in latest 
Oligocene-earliest Miocene (‘‘Orthaulaw zone’) beds 
(Licari, 1960; Hurd, Smith and Durham, 1962). For 
the most part, the amber seems to have been deposited 
near a coastline or at least in estuarine conditions, as 
evidenced by the interfingering of marine fossiliferous 
beds with lignitic seams and carbonaceous material. 
Often a lignitic zone occurs in close proximity to beds 
containing abundant amber, sometimes above and at 
other times below. No recognizable wood remains have 
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