Comparative Stylistic Analysis of Calixtlahuaca Projectile Points

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper discusses a comparative stylistic analysis of projectile points from the Postclassic (1130 – 1530 AD) Aztec city of Calixtlahuaca, located in the Toluca Valley of Central Mexico. Chemical sourcing of Calixtlahuacan obsidian has illustrated that the site was primarily supplied with obsidian from both West and Central Mexico. However, evidence shows that as the amount of central Mexican obsidian increased, the amount from West Mexico decreased. This comparative research will focus on comparing the style of points from Calixtlahuaca to styles from West and Central Mexican sites. Although it has been argued that functional classifications are problematic because the archaeologist is only seeing the final form of a projectile point, they are still useful for making inferences that can be tested. The main questions addressed are (1) do the styles represented at Calixtlahuaca reflect ties with both areas, (2) whether there is any evidence that the Calixtlahuacans were reusing points that are stylistically associated with earlier periods? This latter question is important because only about half the amount of obsidian was reaching Calixtlahuaca by the time of the Spanish conquest. This suggests a scarcity of obsidian, which might have resulted in the curation of earlier projectile points.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36437.0