Pyrotechnology in the Ethnohistoric and Archaeological Record of Prehispanic Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In pre-Hispanic Mexico the use and the importance of fire are demonstrated by materials and objects that, without the use of high temperature processes, or pyrotechnology in general terms, would not exist. As examples it will be sufficient to mention ceramics, metals and lime production. The processes that do not qualify as industrial and that employ lower temperatures also were very significant for the development of everyday life. We find the byproducts of production processes that depend on the transformative power of fire, the ashes of combustion that increase pH values, soil color changes, carbonized materials, traces left by high temperatures on the facilities used to manage and contain fire, and changes in magnetic properties of the heated areas. In some cases, even possible remains of fuels can be identified in the archaeological contexts. In this presentation the authors compare the expected remains of pyrotechnological processes with archaeological finds and information from ethnohistorical and ethnographic sources. The main example used to highlight a discrepancy between the expected and the actual archaeological finds is the metallurgical production process.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26058