Yax ("jade/green," Classic Maya)
The carving of jadeite, the material the ancient Maya valued above gold, using a technique unique in the archive: not just the craft but the raw material's own geological source — the Motagua River Valley jadeite deposits — was completely lost for centuries after the Spanish conquest, hidden by jungle and time, until American expatriates Jay and Mary Lou Ridinger and mineralogist Robert Burkitt rediscovered matching outcrops in the 1970s, allowing descendants of the Maya to once again carve the stone of their ancestors, using modern lapidary tools in place of the ancient carvers' wooden saw blades and abrasive sand.
Risk level: Extinct — Revival Exists · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Guatemala is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ratified 2006) and could nominate this technique in the future.
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