Spheres of Production of the Lapidary Objects at the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: The Legitimacy and Extent of the Power of the Aztec Empire

Summary

In the Great Temple and the surrounding structures at the Sacred Precinct of Mexico Tenochtitlan, the archaeologists recovered thousands of lapidary objects devoted to the religious cult of the Mexica society. Great quantities of them were considered foreign productions or relics related with certain Mesoamerican styles and traditions. In this research we will show that the technological analysis, using Experimental Archaeology and the characterization of the manufacturing traces with SEM, allowed us to identify three spheres of production inside the Sacred Precinct. Based on these results, we discuss the existence of a local style and its differences with the other lapidary traditions detected. The former was employed for reinforce the status and legitimacy of the Tenochcan elites, while the latter the extent of the power of the Aztec Empire.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

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