The origins, technology, and social construction of ancient West Mexican metallurgy. (Volumes I and II).

摘要

This study examines the cultural premises about metal in ancient West Mexico that structured the technology. It also examines its origins and chronological development.;West Mexican cultural assumptions about metal were identified primarily through detailed laboratory analytic studies of its technical characteristics. Analyses were performed on 400 prehispanic metal artifacts (comprising 8 functional artifact types selected from a collection of 3200) and included determination of the repertoire of fabrication techniques through metallographic studies, the metals and alloys used, and the social function or use of the 8 artifact types. Function or use was determined by evaluating artifact design and mechanical properties using standard materials engineering criteria; those data were assessed in conjunction with ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence.;Ancient West Mexican societies perceived metal primarily as a material to symbolically demarcate elite and sacred domains of cultural activity. The two most important properties of metal were its resonance, manifest in a predominant cultural emphasis on the production of bells, and its color, achieved through the use of copper-arsenic, copper-tin, and copper silver alloys. Utilitarian objects such as axes, needles and awls were also produced, but in relatively small numbers.;Two phases were postulated for the development of the technology based on comparison of the analytic results with artifacts from dated archaeological contexts: the first phase (A.D.800-1200 to 1300) in which artifacts were made primarily from unalloyed copper, and the second phase (A.D.1300-1520?) in which the same artifact types were produced but using designs that required the use of alloys.;The origins of the technology were examined by comparing the technical characteristics of West Mexican metallurgy with those of the metallurgies of Central and South America. Major technical components of West Mexican metallurgy were introduced from lower Central America and Colombia, and the Northern and Central Andean region via a maritime route. Although the basic structural elements of the West Mexican metallurgical technology were introduced, they were then incorporated and subsequently transformed for purposes coincident with West Mexican cultural interests.