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NEPHRITE CELT 
NEPHRITE CELT FROM BAHIA, BRAZIL 
By Henry S. Washington 
Geophysical Laboratory of Carnegie Institution of Washington 
Jade artifacts are rather common in Brazil, and Simoens da 
Silva ^ states that they are found in several states. According 
to him, and to the descriptions of Fischer ^ and Hussak ^ the jade 
is always nephrite, no jadeite having apparently been met with in 
Brazil. Nephrite objects from Brazil are rarely seen outside of 
that country, so that it is a pleasure to have the opportunity of 
describing a nephrite celt from the State of Bahia. This was 
found in November, 1920, by Mr. Charles E. Ivers, on the trail 
along the Paraguassu River, between Roncador and Andarahy, 
near Lencsoes, in the carbonado-diamond district. I would ex¬ 
press my hearty thanks to Mr. Ivers for his generosity in giving 
me the interesting specimen, which is now deposited in the U. S. 
National Museum. 
The small celt is of the usual form, like No. 5 of Plate I of 
Da Silva. Its dimensions are: length = 6.0 cm., width = 3.8 
cm., and thickness = 2.1 cm. The cutting edge is not medial, 
but is slightly above the medial plane. The original weight was 
83.3353 grams, but a piece weighing about 6.5 grams was cut out 
to furnish material for this study. 
The celt is well finished and smooth, but not highly polished, 
and has something of the characteristic feel of polished jade. 
The general true color is a slightly yellowish gray-green, Ridg- 
way’s “pistachio green” (33"), but all of one side and part of the 
other is stained a dark, mottled, chocolate brown, Ridgway’s 
“Mars brown” (13'm). The cutting shows that this brown stain 
is very superficial, the color extending inwards not more than 
about 0.1 to 0.2 mm., while the interior is of a uniform gray- 
1 Proc. XIX Gong. Americanists, pp. 229_23S, 1917. 
2 Neues Jahrb., II Bd., p. 214, 1884. 
3 Ann. Nat. Hist. Hofmuseum, XIX Bd., p. 89, 1904. 
