Excavation and Preliminary Analysis of an Obsidian Workshop in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

Healan, Dan M.; Kerley, J.; Bey, George J.

doi:10.1179/009346983792208541

Cited by 49 publications

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“…Their major contributions include determination of Tula's overall size, elucidation of its settlement history and that of the surrounding region, and a comprehensive ceramic chronology. INAH (e.g., Abascal 1982;Cobean 1982;Mastache 1996a) and other institutions (Healan et al 1983) have conducted numerous additional investigations at Tula and in the Tula region.…”

Section: Previous Archaeological Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Excavations at the Cruz locality (Fig. 7, H) partially exposed a workshop that contained distinct living, working, and refuse dumping areas (Healan 1986;Healan et al 1983) and produced prismatic cores and blades from imported polyhedral (percussion) cores (Healan 2002(Healan , 2003. Obsidian residue indicate that the actual core/blade reduction loci were located outdoors (Healan 1997), although core platform grinding appears to have taken place inside the residential compound (Healan 2009b).…”

Section: Craft Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

Healan

2011

J Archaeol Res

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The site of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is well known for its distinctive architecture and sculpture that came to light in excavations initiated some 70 years ago. Less well known is the extensive corpus of archaeological research conducted over the past several decades, revealing a city that at its height covered an area of c. 16 km 2 and incorporated a remarkably diverse landscape of hills, plains, alluvial valleys, and marsh. Its dense, urban character is evident in excavations at over 22 localities that uncovered complex arrangements of residential compounds whose nondurable architecture left relatively few surface traces. Evidence of craft production includes lithic and ceramic production loci in specific sectors of the ancient city. Tula possessed a large and densely settled hinterland that apparently encompassed the surrounding region, including most of the Basin of Mexico, and its area of direct influence appears to have extended to the north as far as San Luís Potosí. Tula is believed to have originated as the center of a regional state that consolidated various Coyotlatelco polities and probably remnants of a previous Teotihuacancontrolled settlement system. Its pre-Aztec history exhibits notable continuity in settlement, ceramics, and monumental art and architecture. The nature of the subsequent Aztec occupation supports ethnohistorical and other archaeological evidence that Tula's ruins were what the Aztecs called Tollan.

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Section: Previous Archaeological Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Craft Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

Healan

2011

J Archaeol Res

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“…In an effort to avoid continuing confusion, the currently accepted nomenclature for archaeologists working in and around the area appears to be "the Pachuca obsidian source." In any case, the mines of Sierra Las Navajas were without question the most important highland Mesoamerican obsidian quarries during pre-Colonial times, providing obsidian to the major sociopolitical centers of Teotihuacá n (Charlton, 1978;Spence, 1981), Tula (Healan, 1983(Healan, , 1986(Healan, , 1993, and Tenochtitlá n (Charlton and Spence, 1982;Pastrana, 1998). It has been traded since at least the Early Formative Period, and has been found in archaeological contexts as far south as Copan, Honduras (Braswell et al, 1994), and as far north as Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma (Barker et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Pachuca obsidian source, Hidalgo, Mexico: A geoarchaeological perspective

Ponomarenko

2003

Geoarchaeology

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Sierra Las Navajas, known to archaeologists as “the Pachuca obsidian source,” has been a major source of obsidian to Mesoamerican societies for more than 3000 years, producing a fine green obsidian unique in Middle America. It was the primary source of the obsidian that formed the economic backbone of the major sociopolitical centers of Classic period Teotihuacán, epi‐Classic Toltec Tula, and Aztec Tenochtitlán. In this paper, the obsidian of Sierra Las Navajas is discussed in the following contexts: (1) geologically, because the extraordinary quality of the Pachuca obsidian, its ease of extraction, and its distinctive color and chemistry are a direct result of its geologic emplacement; (2) locally, as the different mining localities within Sierra Las Navajas reflect the varying needs of the cultures working them; and (3) globally, as the obsidians of Las Navajas were used in concert with obsidians from other sources, and were traded great distances across Mesoamerica. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…Healan et al 1983;Santley et al 1986). Therefore, the detailed typology presented here should have wide descriptive and analytic applicability.…”

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confidence: 94%

A Technological Typology of Prismatic Blades and Debitage From Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico

Clark

Bryant

1997

Ancient Mesoam

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A technological typology for the description and analysis of Mesoamerican obsidian industries is proposed, and its relative merits vis-à-vis Sheets's (1975a) “behavioral” typology are briefly explored. The typology is used to classify and describe a pristine deposit of obsidian-blade refuse recovered from the Early Classic Maya site of Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico. Analysis of this deposit revealed that the obsidian artifacts were manufacturing refuse resulting from the production of fine prismatic blades from polyhedral cores imported from highland Guatemala. The obsidian refuse was recovered from a workshop dump rather than from an actual workshop.

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Excavation and Preliminary Analysis of an Obsidian Workshop in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

The Pachuca obsidian source, Hidalgo, Mexico: A geoarchaeological perspective

A Technological Typology of Prismatic Blades and Debitage From Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico

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