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

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References

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