Analysis of the Different Regions of Metallurgical Work in Oaxaca in the Late Post-Classic: Origin and Change

Metal objects made a late appearance in the cultural area of Mesoamerica, especially in the western and southern regions of Mexico and on the Yucatán peninsula. Arriving around 800 A.D., these objects were introduced from other cultural areas, such as Central America and the Andean region. But their arrival in Mesoamerica marked a key moment that eventually resulted in certain places in this zone undertaking the development of their own methods for working metals. In this regard, western Mexico and the area of Oaxaca stand out. Today, the state of Oaxaca is divided into eight regions, some of which, during the Late Post-Classic period, were characterized by the manufacture of a variety of artifacts rich in gold. While around eighty per cent of the gold artifacts extant today are associated with the Mixtec culture, other groups were also active in creating metal objects in distinct regions of Oaxaca. The objective of this study is to identify the different manufacturing areas of metal objects in Oaxaca, and to demonstrate the different metallurgical traditions adopted by the metalworkers in the elaboration of their pieces. Thus, our interest centers, first, on associating each group or region with the metallurgical tradition to which it gave rise, and then establishing the subsequent development in each region, in an attempt to explain why and how this phenomenon occurred. To fulfill this objective our study is based on non-destructive analyses that have been conducted with diverse collections of metal objects from Oaxaca, on historical and geological data associated with this state, earlier material studies, and comparisons with objects that are considered similar, such as those from Mexica collections.

Dr. Díaz obtained her B.A. in Archaeology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia and an M.A. in Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM. She has an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from El Colegio de México, and is now a Full-time Researcher at the Institute for Anthropological Research (UNAM) and a member of the SNI (Level I). Her areas of interest are communication and exchange routes in Mesoamerica (pre-Hispanic and Colonial periods), archaeometric studies of pre-Hispanic metallurgy (raw material sources and evidence from archaeological remains), the history and archaeology of the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca, and settlement and resettlement of Indian peoples in the 16th century in the Papaloapan region.

Dr. Ruvalcaba received his B.Sc. in Physics at the Faculty of Science at the UNAM with the thesis "Análisis elemental cuantitativo mediante técnicas nucleares de piezas arqueológicas". He obtained his Doctorate inScience (Physics) from the Faculté des Sciences, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, in Namur, Belgium, with the thesis "Analyse non destructive par faisceaux d’ions de bijoux anciens d’Amérique", which won highest honors. Today, he is a Full-time Researcher at the Institute for Physics at the UNAM and a member of the SNI (Level II). His research interests include:non-destructive methods using ion beams applied to archaeology, history and art(archaeometry), radiation interaction with materials, ionization and ionoluminiscence, analytical techniques based on particle accelerators, and the characterization of multilayer systems and materials.