THE JEWELERS OF THE PALACE CRAFTING FOR THE GODS: THE LAPIDARY OBJECTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPERIAL TECHNOLOGICAL STYLE

Summary

After the defeat of Azcapotzalco in AD 1428, the rulers of Tenochtitlan employed different strategies to recreate and reinforce their identity during the Triple Alliance. One of them was the regional request of master artisans, called tolteca, for working at the Aztec capital. Some of these craftsmen and their workshops were located inside the palaces of the tlatoque. Among them were the jewelers that crafted sacred objects for the gods and prestige goods for the elites. The technological analyses of the lapidary objects from the Great Temple, using experimental archaeology and characterization of the manufacturing traces with SEM; and their comparison across the different constructive stages, allowed us to identify the development of the Tenochcan Imperial Style.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Crafting the Tenochcan Imperial Identity and Style

Keywords

Spatial Coverage