Manufacturing Techniques of Shell Objects in Pre-Hispanic Mexico

Since the year 2000, a research project has been conducted whose goal is to understand the manufacturing techniques of the shell objects that were developed throughout Mexico's pre-Hispanic history. This goal is accomplished via experimental archeology, due to the overall lack of direct indicators of production for most of the collections of shell objects, through the analysis of manufacturing traces, which, produced under controlled conditions, are compared with those present in the archaeological materials. To date over 700 experiments have been conducted, and the archaeological collections of sites from all cultural areas of Mexico, covering a temporality of about 3000 years, have been studied. The information obtained has allowed inferences regarding the specialized production of shell objects and has also made possible a proposal for the existence of technological styles specific to certain locations, regions, and eras. This paper presents the general approach of the project and summarizes the main results obtained so far.

Dr. Velázquez received his Ph.D. in anthropology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He was the Curator of the Museum at the Templo Mayor archaeological site from 1990 to 1993 and has been a Professor/Researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), assigned to that Museum since 1993. He has devoted much of his professional life to research on shell-based archaeological materials; especially notable are his analyses of collections from the Maya area (Jaina, Campeche and Reforma, Tabasco) and central Mexico (Las Bocas, Puebla; Xalla and Teopancazco, Teotihuacan, State of Mexico; Tula, Hidalgo and the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan). His outstanding publications include: Tipología de los objetos de concha del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan, El simbolismo de los objetos de concha de las ofrendas encontradas en el Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan and La producción especializada de los objetos de concha del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan. He earned honorable mention for the Alfonso Caso Prize in the category of Master's Thesis in 1999, and his doctoral dissertation won that distinguished award in 2005. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México awarded him the Alfonso Caso Medal as "the most distinguished doctoral student" of his generation in 2006. Currently, he is coordinating the project entitled "Manufacturing Techniques of Shell Objects in Pre-Hispanic Mexico".