"An Instrument for Seeing": The Multivalent Nature of Volcanic Glass in Mesoamerica

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout Mesoamerica, obsidian commonly turns up in the form of prismatic blades, knives, projectile points and spearheads—pragmatic tools of daily work and routine life in the Pre-Columbian world. Yet these ordinary usages did not preclude obsidian from occupying a prominent place in religious symbolism, ritual practice and political theater across time and space in Mesoamerica. In such settings, obsidian was a material that was symbolically charged yet practical; menacing, yet also protective. With special attention to obsidian "eccentrics" and ceremonial blades, this paper draws from archaeology, ethnohistory, artistic analysis and epigraphy to take a fresh look at the multivalent nature of obsidian in Mesoamerica and explore the symbolisms and contradictions this material came to embody through time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25936