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.