Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-htx7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-09T17:45:51.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Technological Analysis and Source Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from a Sun Pyramid Substructure Cache, Teotihuacan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2019

Joshua J. Kwoka  and
M. Steven Shackley
Joshua J. Kwoka*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo, 380 MFAC – Ellicott Complex, Buffalo, NY, 14261-0026, USA
M. Steven Shackley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, 232 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3710, USA
*
(jjkwoka@buffalo.edu, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The following report provides new data on a Sun Pyramid cache excavated by René Millon in 1959, including confirmation that the cache was associated with a substructure. A technological analysis illustrates the anthropomorphic eccentric production sequence, and indicates that the miniature projectile points were produced from debitage from multiple reduction technologies. All obsidian artifacts were attributed to the Otumba source area via energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). In addition to providing data on the production of obsidian implements for ritual deposits, we suggest that the cache may be a representation of scaffold sacrifice.

El siguiente informe proporciona nuevos datos sobre un escondite hallado en la Pirámide del Sol en una excavación realizada por René Millon en 1959. Se incluye la confirmación de que dicho escondite estaba asociado con una subestructura. El análisis tecnológico ilustra la secuencia de producción de un excéntrico antropomorfo e indica que las puntas de proyectil en miniatura se produjeron a partir de los desechos resultantes de múltiples tecnologías de reducción. Todos los artefactos de obsidiana se atribuyeron a la zona de origen de Otumba a través de fluorescencia de rayos X por energía dispersiva (EDXRF, por sus siglas en inglés). Además de proporcionar datos sobre la producción de herramientas de obsidiana para depósitos rituales, se sugiere que el escondite podría ser una representación de un sacrificio en cadalso.

Keywords

TeotihuacanSun PyramidObsidian SymbolismEDXRFTeotihuacanPirámide del Solsimbolismo de la obsidianaEDXRF

Information

Type
Report
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 205 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Carballo, David M. 2011 Obsidian and the Teotihuacan State: Weaponry and Ritual Production at the Moon Pyramid. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 21. Center for Comparative Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Pittsburgh and Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cobean, Robert H., Vogt, James R., Glascock, Michael D., and Stocker, Terrance L. 1991 High-Precision Trace-Element Characterization of Major Mesoamerican Obsidian Sources and Further Analysis of Artifacts from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 2:69–91.Google Scholar
Glascock, Michael D. 2011 Comparison and Contrast between XRF and NAA: Used for Characterization of Obsidian Sources in Central Mexico. In X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) in Geoarchaeology, edited by Shackley, M. Steven, pp. 161–92. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Glascock, Michael D., Michael Elam, James, and Ayoama, Kazuo 1990 Provenience Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from the La Entrada Region, Honduras. Proceedings of the 1990 Archaeometry Symposium, pp. 395–404. Basel, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Jeffrey Flenniken, J. 2006 Appendix A. The Analytical Categories for Xochicalco's Lithic Terminology. In Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 301–314. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
López Luján, Leonardo, Filloy Nadal, Laura, Fash, Barbara, Fash, William L., and Hernández, Pilar 2006 The Destruction of Images in Teotihuacan: Anthropomorphic Sculpture, Elite Cults, and the End of a Civilization. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 49–50:13–39.Google Scholar
López Luján, Leonardo, and Sugiyama, Saburo 2017 The Ritual Deposits in the Moon Pyramid at Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, edited by Robb, Matthew H., pp. 82–89. de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Millon, René, and Drewitt, Bruce 1961 Earlier Structures within the Pyramid of the Sun. American Antiquity 26:370–380.Google Scholar
Millon, René, Drewitt, Bruce, and Bennyhoff, James A. 1965 The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán: 1959 Investigations. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 55. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Nelson, Fred. W., and Tingey, D. G. 1997 X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Obsidians in Western North America, Mexico, and Guatemala: Database for Source Identification. Manuscript on file, Geoarchaeological XRF Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Parry, William J. 2014 Reflections on Reflections. In Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic Dimensions of Obsidian in Mesoamerica, edited by Levine, Marc N. and Carballo, David M., pp. 279–318. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Parry, William J., and Kabata, Shigeru 2004 Chronology of Obsidian Artifacts from the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, Quebec.Google Scholar
Shackley, M. Steven 2005 Obsidian: Geology and Archaeology in the North American Southwest. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sload, Rebecca 2015 When Was the Sun Pyramid Built? Maintaining the Status Quo at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 26:221–241.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert E. 1987 A Ceramic Sequence from the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 75. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 2005 Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership: Materialization of State Ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo, and Luján, Leonardo López 2006 Sacrificios de Consagración en la Pirámide de la Luna, Teotihuacan. In Sacrificios de Consagración en la Pirámide de la Luna, edited by Sugiyama, Saburo and Luján, Leonardo López, pp. 25–52. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Instituto Nacional de Anthropología e Historia, and Arizona State University. Mexico, D.F., and Tempe.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Nawa, Sugiyama, Saburo, and Sarabia G, Alejandro. 2013 Inside the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, Mexico: 2009–2011. Excavations and Preliminary Results. Latin American Antiquity 24:403–432.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl S. 1988 A Study of Classic Maya Scaffold Sacrifice. In Maya Iconography, edited by Benson, Elizabeth P. and Griffin, Gillett G., pp. 331–351. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material 1

Download Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material(File)
File 36.9 KB
Supplementary material: Image

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material 2

Download Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material(Image)
Image 965 KB
Supplementary material: Image

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material

Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material 3

Download Kwoka and Shackley supplementary material(Image)
Image 960.2 KB