Getting to the Point: Evidence for the Bow at Epiclassic Xochicalco, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the bow was not present in Mesoamerica until the Postclassic period (AD 900–1519). This date is chronologically convenient because it is consistent with the notion that the bow diffused from North America after AD 700. New evidence from the Epiclassic (AD 650–900) central Mexican city of Xochicalco suggests otherwise. This poster addresses the presence of micro-blade arrow points recovered in the city’s civic-ceremonial center. I argue that the prevalence of these points indicates that the bow was used in combat at Xochicalco. This inference is supported by the ubiquity of these points, their morphological characteristics, and the archaeological contexts where they were recovered. Experimental research indicates these points would have been too small for atlatl darts; moreover, they represent more than 50% of the weaponry from the civic-ceremonial center. Finally, based on ethnohistoric data, most points were recovered in two structures in the main public plaza that appear analogous to the Aztec-period Tlacochcalco, or armory. These small arrow points are consistent with an Epiclassic emphasis on militarism and what technological research reveals about the restrictions placed on the availability of obsidian at Xochicalco during this period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35652.0