A Technological Reconstruction of Preindustrial Copper Smelting in Central Michoacan, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The earliest evidence for copper metallurgy in Mesoamerica comes from West Mexico, dating to ca. AD 800. Over a period of approximately 700 years, a wide variety of artifacts was manufactured, typically decorations and other valuable non-utilitarian items from several contexts. After the Spanish conquest, the colonizers assumed control of the local copper industry, employing native miners and smelters, who for decades carried on their metallurgical techniques. Little is known about the manufacture and the organization of production of this craft. Archaeological research at the site of Jicalán Viejo (ca. 1400–1609), in central Michoacán, has recently located potential production areas where concentrations of manufacturing slag and other smelting byproducts were recorded. Slag analysis has the potential for revealing critical information about metallurgical technology. Copper smelting slags recovered from Jicalán Viejo are analyzed for microstructure and compositional properties using optical microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Preliminary results indicate a smelting technology that used sulfidic ores and highly efficient furnaces. While further archaeological investigations are required to precisely date these activities, this technological information is important for establishing the context and scale of production of metal goods in ancient Mesoamerica.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35784.0