For Whom the Bells Fall: Metals from the Cenote Sagrado, Chichén Itzá

Abstract

Bells of copper and copper alloys and gold–copper alloys were deposited in events at the Cenote Sagrado at Chichén Itzá, Mexico during the site's primary occupation (ad 750–1050) and in later centuries. Housed in three museums in the United States and Mexico, bells (n = 38) were evaluated for traces of fabrication and alteration using Vis–UV–IR optical microscopy. Bulk compositions were determined through p‐ED‐XRF. Phases and compositional variation by depth were characterized through XRD and RBS. The technological styles of bell groups were ascribed to communities of metallurgical practice, from West and Central Mexico to Costa Rica and Panama.

Recycling and Reconfiguring: Metalwork of Maya Communities at Lamanai and Tipu, Belize

“…Small numbers of metal artifacts have been recovered from Classic period contexts at a handful of lowland sites (see below), but it was not until the eleventh to twelfth centuries that metal objects began to appear in the Maya world in appreciable quantities (Simmons and Shugar 2013a). The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza represents a special case with the deposition of metals that are analogous to objects produced in the Central American Isthmus as early as a.d. 700 (Cockrell et al 2015; Ortiz et al 2016). In addition, it has not been possible to fully understand how the Maya organized the production of metal objects since virtually no workshops have been identified, with the exception of the one recently reported at the site of El Coyote in western Honduras (Urban et al 2013).…”

“…Excavations by INAH-CEDAM in 1961 and 1968 added to this diverse assemblage (Piña Chan 1970). Copper finds include a variety of bell types, rings, and axes, while gold or tumbaga items include other bell types, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, and embossed discs (Cockrell 2014; Lothrop 1952). These metals were likely fabricated in places as diverse as west Mexico (certain copper bells, “axe-monies,” and tweezers), Caribbean Costa Rica (figurines), the Cocle region of Panama (ear ornaments, cuffs), and were subjected to re-working (crumpling, embossing, indenting) before their deposition.…”

“…Manufacturing technologies have been examined using data from on-going microstructural and chemical compositional analyses (Cockrell et al 2013;Shugar 2005Shugar , 2008Simmons and Shugar 2013b). This archaeometric approach dovetails with studies of metal artifacts from the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza (Cockrell et al 2015;Contreras et al 2007;Franco Velásquez and de Grinberg 2002;Ortiz et al 2016;Root in Lothrop 1952) and the metallurgical ceramics from Mayapan (Meanwell et al 2013). It is hoped that the research presented here may serve as a point of encouragement for future comparative, technological studies of metals in the world of the ancient Maya.…”

Analysis of Heavy Metals in Smoke Deposits in the Limewash of the Royal Artillery Factory of Seville (17th Century): Contributions to the Location of the Furnaces

“…Similarly, no chemical element different to those already analysed was observed, suggesting that changes in the majority raw materials used in the foundry processes and in the technological processes developed during the 16th and 17th centuries were scarce (Cockrell et al . , 977).…”

When Art Dies, Art Lives

“…Obviously a multi-century practice that led to the sorts of offerings within the natural sinkhole merits further consideration: what to make of the metric tonnes of blue pigment, hundreds of kilos of copal incense, the bones of approximately 250 humans, some of them sacrificed (Anda Alanís 2007;Beck & Sievert 2005), thousands of pots, thousands of jades, hundreds of wooden objects, dozens of textiles, and worked gold objects-many of them little cast frogsfrom Panama, in addition to the gold disks (Coggins & Shane 1984)? A few chips of turquoise can be sourced to the Los Cerrillos mines of New Mexico, and thousands of copper bells came from north of Acapulco, making this vast sinkhole one of the great nodes of ancient Mesoamerica c. 1000 ad (Cockrell et al 2015). The blue pigment was produced through burning; the incense was on fire at the sinkhole's edge.…”