3,065 Sherd Disks and their Potential Uses in Calixtlahuaca in the Toluca Valley

Summary

Among the artifacts found at the site of Calixtlahuaca, excavations recovered an unusually large quantity of sherd disks. Calixtlahuaca is an Aztec Postclassic (AD 1130-1530) site located in the Toluca Valley of Central Mexico. These sherd disks, or tejos, were created from bowls and pots broken during antiquity. The potsherds were worked until they were circular in shape. Other researchers have suggested potential uses for these worked sherds, including gaming tokens (for the game patolli), net weights, and spindle whorls. This poster describes the sherd disks found at Calixtlahuaca and addresses the suggested uses by analyzing the size distribution, morphology and contexts of recovery of these artifacts.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Comparative Approaches to Postclassic Mesoamerican Ceramics

Keywords

Spatial Coverage