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The emergence of metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica occurred relatively late in the region's history, with distinctive works of metal apparent in West Mexico by roughly 800 CE, and perhaps as early as 600 CE. [1] Metallurgical techniques likely diffused northward from regions in Central or South America via maritime trade routes; recipients of these metallurgical technologies apparently exploited a wide range of material, including alloys of copper-silver, copper-arsenic, copper-tin and copper-arsenic-tin. [2]
Metal items crafted throughout Mesoamerica may be broken into three classes: utilitarian objects, objects used for individual ornamentation, and ceremonial/ritual objects. [3] The latter two categories comprise the bulk of distinctly Mesoamerican artifacts, with metals playing a particularly important role in the sacred and symbolic cultural realms.
The earliest and most diverse finds of metal artifacts are from West Mexico stretching in a belt along the Pacific coast from Guerrero to Nayarit. This indicates that this region was a regional nucleus of metallurgy, [4] from which elements of technique, form and style could have diffused throughout Mesoamerica.
The Mixtec civilization have long been thought to be the dominant goldsmiths of post-classic Mesoamerica. [5] A large number of gold artifacts found in central and southern Mexico have been attributed to the Mixtec.
There is recent evidence that suggests that the Aztec civilization was a distinct locus of metallurgy, [6] though gold objects from this area had previously been attributed to the Mixtec.
Some locally produced artifacts have been found in late-postclassic sites in the La Huasteca region. [7]
West Mexican smiths worked primarily in copper during the initial period, with some low-arsenic alloys, as well as occasional employment of silver and gold. Lost-wax cast bells were introduced from lower Central America and Colombia during this phase, along with several classes of cold-worked ornaments and hand tools, such as needles and tweezers. The prototypes for these small, often utilitarian items appear rooted in southern Ecuador and northern Peru. [8] Small copper rings, generally found in burial contexts, are also common to Ecuador and Western Mexico and are abundant during this phase.
Excavated assemblages from the initial phase indicate that lost-wax cast bells also occupied a substantial portion of West Mexican artisans' efforts. Unlike similar bells recovered from coastal Ecuador, West Mexican bells were cast, rather than worked, metal. Typically composed of a smooth, suspended metal shell encasing an interior clapper, the West Mexican bells were generally fashioned from copper alloys and bore particular resemblance to bells made in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. [9]
Metal smiths demonstrated increasing technical sophistication, producing both utilitarian and status-linked items. During the latter phase, Michoacán emerged as a technological hub, with metal artifacts also appearing at the adjacent zones of Guerrero and Jalisco.
Alloys became more prevalent during the second phase, as metal workers experimented with color, strength and fluidity. Formerly utilitarian assemblages transformed, with new focus placed upon metallic status objects. Further, the appearance of a copper-tin bronze alloy suggests contact between West Mexico and Peru during this period. However, many of the alloys/alloy concentrations used in West Mexico appear to reflect local innovation.
Scholars such as Dorothy Hosler suggest that ancient Mesoamericans were unique in their attention to the peculiar aesthetic properties of metals, such as the brilliant sounds and colors evoked through the movement of metallic objects. [10] The rather late emergence of metallurgy in ancient Mesoamerica likely contributed to its novelty and subsequent role as a marker of elite status.
It has been suggested that Mesoamerican metal smiths produced particular alloys with the chief aim of exploiting the alloys’ emergent color properties, particularly the vivid gold tones produced through infusion of tin, and the silver shades that develop at high arsenic concentrations. Notably, certain artifacts from West Mexico contain tin or arsenic at concentrations as high as 23 weight percent, while concentrations of alloying elements at roughly 2 to 5 weight percent are typically adequate for augmented strength and mechanical utility. [11]
Metal smiths in pre-Columbian West Mexico particularly exploited the brilliance inherent in metallic sound and sheen, suggesting that their creations tended to occupy a sacred and symbolic space. [12] Metallic colors, gold and silver, might have been connected with solar and lunar deities while bell sounds have been associated with fertility rituals and protection in warfare. [13]
(AD 900–1450) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; Objects of personal adornment'
(AD 800/900–1450) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; objects of personal adornment
(AD 900–1500) Objects of personal adornment and ceremonial objects
(AD 900–1500) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; objects of personal adornment
(AD 450(?)–1500) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; objects of personal adornment
(AD 900–1500) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; objects of personal adornment
(1000–1450) Utilitarian and ceremonial objects; objects of personal adornment
(1000–1450) Utilitarian objects; objects of personal adornment
Lamanai is a Mesoamerican archaeological site, and was once a major city of the Maya civilization, located in the north of Belize, in Orange Walk District. The site's name is pre-Columbian, recorded by early Spanish missionaries, and documented over a millennium earlier in Maya inscriptions as Lam'an'ain. Lamanai is renowned for its exceptionally long occupation spanning three millennia, beginning in the Early Preclassic Maya period and continuing through the Spanish and British Colonial periods, into the 20th century. Unlike most Classic-period sites in the southern Maya lowlands, Lamanai was not abandoned at the end of the 10th century AD.
Melampodium is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family.
Hechtia is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae, and is the sole genus of the subfamily Hechtioideae, containing 75 species. Its species are native to Mexico, Central America, and Texas.
Bouteloua is a genus of plants in the grass family. Members of the genus are commonly known as grama grass.
The Huastec civilization was a pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica, occupying a territory on the Gulf coast of Mexico that included the northern portion of Veracruz state, and neighbouring regions of the states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas. The Huastec people were an early offshoot of the Maya peoples that migrated northwards.
Gonolobus is a genus of plant in family Apocynaceae, first described in 1803. It is native to South America, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and the southern United States.
Jarilla is a genus in the family Caricaceae of Brassicales.
Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America is the extraction, purification and alloying of metals and metal crafting by Indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European contact in the late 15th century. Indigenous Americans have been using native metals from ancient times, with recent finds of gold artifacts in the Andean region dated to 2155–1936 BCE, and North American copper finds dated to approximately 5000 BCE. The metal would have been found in nature without need for smelting, and shaped into the desired form using hot and cold hammering without chemical alteration or alloying. To date "no one has found evidence that points to the use of melting, smelting and casting in prehistoric eastern North America." In South America the case is quite different. Indigenous South Americans had full metallurgy with smelting and various metals being purposely alloyed. Metallurgy in Mesoamerica and Western Mexico may have developed following contact with South America through Ecuadorian marine traders.
Decachaeta is a genus of Mesoamerican flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
Tridax is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.
Otopappus is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae, primarily Mesoamerican but with one species from Jamaica.
Perymenium is a genus of South American and Mesoamerican plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.
Gibasis is a genus of flowering plants within the Commelinaceae family, first described in 1837. It is native to the Western Hemisphere from Texas and the West Indies south to Argentina, with most of the species native to Mexico.
Echeandia is a genus of New World plants in the century plant subfamily within the asparagus family.
Protographium epidaus, the Mexican kite swallowtail or long-tailed kite swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is found in Mexico and Central America.
Axe-monies refer to bronze artifacts found in both western Mesoamerica and the northern Andes. Based on ethnohistorical, archaeological, chemical, and metallurgical analyses, the scholars Hosler, Lechtman and Holm have argued for their use in both regions through trade. In contrast to naipes, bow-tie- or card-shaped metal objects which appear in the archaeological record only in the northern Andean coastal region, axe-monies are found in both Mesoamerican and Andean cultural zones. More specifically, it is argued that the system of money first arose on the north coast of Peru and Ecuador in the early second millennium CE. In both regions, bronze was smelted, likely by family units, and hammered into thin, axe-shaped forms and bundled in multiples of five, usually twenty. As they are often found in burials, it is likely that in addition to their presumed economic use, they also had ceremonial value.
Traditional metal working in Mexico dates from the Mesoamerican period with metals such as gold, silver and copper. Other metals were mined and worked starting in the colonial period. The working of gold and silver, especially for jewelry, initially declined after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. However, during the colonial period, the working of metals rose again and took on much of the character traditional goods still have. Today, important metal products include those from silver, gold, copper, iron, tin and more made into jewelry, household objects, furniture, pots, decorative objects, toys and more. Important metal working centers include Taxco for silver, Santa Clara del Cobre for copper, Celaya for tin and Zacatecas for wrought iron.
The tlaximaltepoztli or simply tepoztli was a common weapon used by civilizations from Mesoamerica which was formed by a wooden haft in which the poll of the bronze head was inlaid in a hole in the haft. It was used for war or as a tool. Its use is documented by the Codex Mendoza and the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer. Tax collectors from the Aztec Empire demanded this kind of axe as tribute from the subjugated kingdoms. In Aztec mythology, the tepoztli was used by the god Tepoztécatl, god of fermentation and fertility. In Codex Borgia he is represented with a bronze axe.
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