Technological analysis of bone bloodletting instruments from the offerings of The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan

Summary

In the seventh season of excavation at the Templo Mayor Project (2007-2014), 25 bone awls were recovered from offerings found in front of the staircase of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. We were able to determine that the bone awls were elaborated from bones of birds and mammals, such as eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), jaguar (Panthera onca), mountain lion (Puma concolor), wolf (Canis lupus) and whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus). The bone awls were recovered from five offerings (120, 121, 126, 141 and 149), of which three were located in places directly associated with goddess Tlaltecuhtli and the other two in the Cuauhxicalco. All of them correspond to the sixth construction stage (1486-1502 A.C.). In the present study we performed a taxonomic identification, typological analysis and manufacturing technique analysis of the recovered bone tools with the purpose of increasing our knowledge of the complex bone industry that the Tenochca Empire had during the government of Ahuizotl.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Animals and the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: Biology, Archaeology, History, and Conservation

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15434