Muiraquitãs arc frogshape stone artifacts made mainly in greenstones like jade, used by peoples of Tapajó/Santarém and Conduri tradition/culture from Lower Amazon region, which were extinguished by european colonizators. They used as amulets, symbol of power and as trade materials. The majority of studiers believe that the greenstone jade come from Asia and reinforce the peopling of South America from Asia through North America. Mineralogical and chemical analyses over ten pieces of muiraquitãs from Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG), Museu de Arqueologia e Etnografia from Universidade de São Paulo and from prof. Amarilis Tupiassu show that they are made of tremolite for MPEG and prof. Amarilis and acti-nolite, talc and pyrphyllite for MAE. Tremolite and actinolite are the most common minerals of the nephritic jade, which is not too rare. The microchemical analysis aggree with the mincralogical determinations and show that the jade from MAE contain sulphate and ferrous iron and differ from the jade of muiraquitã of MPEG. Both jade can not be correlated with the jade of Baytinga (Amargosa-BA). Tremolite and actinolite are common minerals in proterozoic formations of Amazon region and dismitified the asking for an asian provenience of raw material of muiraquitãs as well as the interpretation of a peopling move from Asia to South America trough North America.
Muyrakytã; muiraquitã; jade; nephryte; Amazonia; tremolitc; actinolite