Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors.Miller 1999, p. 78. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior.Miller 1999, p. 77. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and the Maya began to make small objects in gold, silver and copper. The Maya generally hammered sheet metal into objects such as beads, bells, and discs. In the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, the Maya began to use the lost-wax method to cast small metal pieces.Miller 1999, p. 76.
