A Nineteenth-Century Furnace in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Summary

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

Tonalá and Tlaquepaque are the main centers of traditional glassblowing in Mexico today. While there are records of one glass furnace in the sixteenth century in Jalisco, the industry did not take root in the area until the early nineteenth century. The analysis of archaeological glass from colonial Mexico City shows that glassmakers followed the tradition inherited from Spain but adapting it to the local resources and making it their own. Historical documents of a nineteenth-century glass furnace in Guadalajara, Jalisco, show further technological changes as glassmakers incorporated more raw materials into their batches and attempted to make crystal-clear colorless glass. Combining ethnoarchaeological and historical sources, this paper discusses the way in which glassmakers in Jalisco diverted from the colonial tradition and began developing an independent industry at the time when Mexico was at the verge of becoming an independent nation.

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): 36541.0