An offering of small objects, laid out in the form of a cross, was discovered above the layer of clay covering the jaguar mask of the southeast platform. This offering consisted of twenty small polished axes, carved from jade or serpentine, and a concave mirror made of hematite. Seven of these mirrors in all have been discovered at La Venta. They are made of hematite, magnetite, or ilmenite, and a specialist, J. E. Gullberg, has written (p. 282): “It is impossible to reconstruct the technique used in making these concave mirrors. . . . they have a gracefulness, dignity, and perfection that makes it hard to think of them as . . . only ornamental. The concave side has received a care that would seem to go beyond the standards of even superb lapidaries.” What could these mirrors have been used for? All of them except one have perforations in them that seem to indicate that they might have been strung on a necklace. One figuring from La Venta in fact is shown wearing a small mirror as a pectoral. Experiments have demonstrated that these mirrors could be used to focus the sun’s rays to light a fire. Perhaps Olmec priests wore these mirrors on their breasts and used them for lighting sacred fires, especially those intended to set the jungle ablaze, the first step in the cultivation of maize.