Colonial Glass Production in Mexico City: A Study on Technology Transfer and Adaptation

Author(s): Karime Castillo

Year: 2019

Summary

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

The technology to make glass was brought to Mexico by Spanish glass artisans shortly after the Conquest in the sixteenth century. In the process of transferring their technological knowledge to the New World, these glass artisans encountered several challenges as they established workshops in Mexico City and Puebla, but were able to adapt the technology to the local conditions and resources. Through a multidisciplinary approach incorporating archaeology, history, and materials science principles and methods it is possible to investigate the transfer, adaptation, and development of European glass technology in colonial Mexico. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the chemical composition of archaeological glass from Mexico City showing how a foreign technology was adopted in a colonial context and adapted to the resources available in New Spain.

Cite this Record

Colonial Glass Production in Mexico City: A Study on Technology Transfer and Adaptation. Karime Castillo. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 450339)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -107.271; min lat: 18.48 ; max long: -94.087; max lat: 23.161 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25466