Manufacturing Techniques of Olmec Art Sculptures from Arroyo Pesquero in the MAX (Museo de Antropología de Xalapa)

Summary

Since its discovery in 1969, the site of Arroyo Pesquero, in Southern Veracruz, has been an emblematic town with an Olmec offering that guards some similarities with the sites of Manatí and La Merced, related to the divinities of water and fertility. In the bed of the river were deposited masks, axes and other objects in jade with an excellent manufacturing and beauty. The sculptures of this site with an archaeological context are now stored at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa. In this paper, we present the analysis of the technological manufacture of these objects, following the methodology used by the laboratory of experimental archaeology in lapidary objects at Templo Mayor, which has an extensive reference in experimental techniques of abrading, burnishing, polishing and prehispanic incisions. The results allowed us to understand the craft of these materials in this important site from Southern Veracruz during the Formative period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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