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A MAZAPA PHASE COPPER FIGURINE FROM ATETELCO, TEOTIHUACAN:DATA AND SPECULATIONS

Dorothy Hosler and Ruben Cabrera

Ancient Mesoamerica / Volume 21 / Issue 02 / September 2010, pp 249 - 260DOI: 10.1017/S0956536110000313, Published online: 04 July 2011

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0956536110000313

How to cite this article:Dorothy Hosler and Ruben Cabrera (2010). A MAZAPA PHASE COPPER FIGURINE FROM ATETELCO, TEOTIHUACAN: DATAAND SPECULATIONS. Ancient Mesoamerica, 21, pp 249-260 doi:10.1017/S0956536110000313

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A MAZAPA PHASE COPPER FIGURINE FROMATETELCO, TEOTIHUACAN: DATA ANDSPECULATIONS

Dorothy Hoslera and Ruben CabrerabaMassachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 8-138, Cambridge, MA 02139, USAbProyecto Arqueológico Teotihuacán, San Juan Teotihuacán, Mexico

Abstract

Excavations of the Mazapan phase at the Atetelco complex at Teotihuacan by Ruben Cabrera and colleagues produced a small humancopper figurine. Studies of Mesoamerican metallurgy have indicated that metallurgy was introduced to western Mexico around a.d. 700from Colombia, and Ecuador. This particular figurine is a remarkable find. The dates (a.d. 800–900) precede those of copper artifacts inthe central Highlands. The manufacturing method (an open-backed casting) is rare in Mesoamerica but common in Colombia and Panama.Open-backed cast figurines that do appear in Mesoamerica come from the Cenote of Sacrifice, are made from copper-gold alloys, and wereimported from lower Central America or Colombia. The Atetelco figurine is made from a copper-arsenic alloy. Copper-arsenic alloyobjects are common in western Mexico (after a.d. 1150) and Ecuador and northern Peru (after about a.d. 300). The major questionconcerning the Atetelco figurine is whether it was fashioned in Ecuador or Colombia and imported, or whether it was produced in westernMexico. Our study of artifact chemistry, fabrication methods, and provenience indicate that the weight of the evidence points to westernMexico. We suggest that this fabrication technique (lost-wax castings of open-backed human figurines), while introduced from Colombiaand lower Central America, never became a major component of the Mesoamerican metallurgical tradition.

Dr. Ruben Cabrera and colleagues recently excavated a lost-waxcast small copper figurine (Figure 1a) at Atetelco, Teotihuacan, inMazapan burial # 23. This constitutes a major and remarkablefind since no other metal artifacts have been excavated at this cityeither during its florescence or abandonment or during the sub-sequent Postclassic period. Dates for the production of the figurineare imprecise. Various works (Manzanilla and Arrellin 1999;Manzanilla, Lopez, and Nicolas 2007; Sanders 1986, 1987;Sanders and Murdy 1987) date Mazapan to between a.d.800–900 from pottery associations. P. Claudia M. Lopez andClaudia Nicolas Careta (2005) have recently argued for an a.d.770 date for Mazapan in the Teotihuacan Valley. George Cowgillhas placed the Mazapan occupation between a.d. 800–850 anda.d. 1000–1050.1 Regardless, this specimen is the earliest metalobject found in highland central Mexico.

Metal objects first appeared inMesoamerica in west Mexico abouta.d. 700 or slightly earlier. Figure 2 locates sites in west Mexicowhere metal artifacts have been recovered. The technology was intro-duced from lower Central America and Andean South America(Dewan and Hosler 2008; Hosler 1986, 1988b, 1994, 2005). Mostmetal artifacts recovered before a.d. 1000 appear at sites (Mountjoy1969) along the west coast or at sites with riverine access to moreinland settlements (Garcia 2007; Hosler 1988a, 1988b, 1994).Peoples in the west Mexican metalworking zone (Guerrero,Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit) developed a technicallycomplex copper-based metalworking technology, which by a.d.

1150was characterized by the extensive use of bronze (copper-arsenicand copper-tin), copper-silver, and other alloys. In Oaxaca and south-eastern Mesoamerica local but related metalworking technologiesdate to after abouta.d. 1150. Oaxacanmetallurgy is distinguished pre-dominantly by complex castings made from copper-gold andcopper-silver-gold alloys (Bray 1977; Caso 1965; Hosler 1994). Insoutheastern Mesoamerica, copper castings (particularly bells,buttons, rings, and other small ornaments) distinguish that technologi-cal tradition. Copper ores exist in the state of Oaxaca that could haveserved as sources for Oaxacan objects (Hosler and Macfarlane 1996).The highland areas of Chiapas, Guatemala, and Honduras containcopper deposits that could have served as sources for the southeasternMaya area metal artifacts, although we have no lead isotope data fromthose deposits that could illuminate provenience.

Apart from the unusual context, the Atetelco figurine is atypical inthe Mesoamerican metallurgical repertoire and raises a set of highlyintriguing questions concerning where the figurine was manufactured.Only a handful of standing metal figurines are known to have comefrom Mesoamerica, and very few examples exist that are stylized(Pendergast 1962). This particular figurine is an open-backedcasting, a technique that is rare in Mesoamerica but common inlower Central America and Colombia. The artifact chemistry compli-cates the picture because, as our analytic data demonstrate, this figur-ine is made from an alloy of copper and arsenic containing 1.75% Asby weight. Open-backed figures from lower Central America andColombia are invariably cast from copper-gold, an alloy typical ofthose regions. Copper-arsenic alloy objects are virtually nonexistentin the repertoires of those metallurgies. If we assume an a.d.800–1050 date for the Mazapan figurine, this date also slightly

249

E-mail correspondence to: hosler@mit.edu1

Personal communication to Hosler, February 2009.

Ancient Mesoamerica, 21 (2010), 249–260Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2011doi:10.1017/S0956536110000313

Figure 1. (a) Front and back views of Atetelco figurine. (b) Location of samples for chemical and metallographic analysis.

Figure 2. Map of West Mexico and location of Teotihuacan. Map locates some sites where metal objects have been recovered (fromHosler 1994, 2005).

Hosler and Cabrera250

predates copper-arsenic alloy castings in Mesoamerica (Garcia 2007;Hosler 1994).

Here we describe the object and its depositional context atAtetelco and the results of laboratory studies to determine fabrica-tion technique, composition, and provenience. We then presentwhat we believe to be the most plausible explanation for the pres-ence of an open-backed cast figurine in a Mazapan context madefrom a copper-arsenic alloy.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

The figurine was recovered in excavations carried out on the south-east side of the Atetelco complex at Teotihuacan by Ruben Cabreraand his students during 1997 and 1998 (Cabrera and Gomez 1998).Atetelco is located on the west side of the ceremonial precinct ofTeotihuacan, approximately 1500 m to the southwest of thePyramid of the Sun (Figure 3). The complex lies in sector N2W3of Millon’s (1973) archaeological map. The objective of the

excavations in 1997 and 1998 was to explore the southeast sectorof the complex and to locate the southeast corner in a longer-termproject to define the construction sequence and the dimensions ofthe complex. Prior archaeological work at Atetelco (Armillas1950; Ortega and Andrade 1999; Séjourné 1956–1957; Sèjournéand Romero 1982) provided key information but did not determinedimensions, construction sequence, or the role that Atetelco mayhave played at Teotihaucan before or after the decline of the city.

The excavations (Figure 3) defined the entire southeast corner andthe southeastern limits of the complex. They also identified where thestreets intersected that demarcate the complex’s eastern and southernedge. Archaeological explorations (Figure 4) which consisted of aseries of deep stratigraphic pits, initially revealed a rough hard-packedfloor between 0.5–15 cm below the surface. Subsequent work demon-strated that this floor corresponded to a post-Teotihuacan Mazapanoccupation. The floor of the last Teotihuacan occupation lies belowit at levels varying between 40–80 cm. In fill deposited betweenthese levels, researchers discovered a number of burials containing

Figure 3. Location of Atetelco within the Teotihuacan complex and location of burial 23 within the complex of Atetelco.

Mazapa Phase Copper Figurine from Atetelco, Teotihuacan 251

Mazapan pottery, which strongly suggests that the floor immediatelyabove these burials was constructed by a Mazapan group livingabove the ruins of this Teotihuacan architectural complex. TheTeotihuacan floor occurs at 1.20 m near the street that delimitsthe south edge of the complex. The thickness of the fill above theTeotihuacan floor suggested that it had been abandoned for a substan-tial period before the Mazapan occupation.

Burial 23

Burial 23, where the figurine was recovered, lies in level 5, directlybelow the Mazapan floor and below the street that marks the south-east edge of the complex. Depth varied between 98–121 cm withrespect to the datum (Figure 4A and A’). Osteological remains com-prise an area measuring 55 cm in length by 38 cm in width. The

remains, which suffered significant post-depositional damage,were crushed by fill and displaced by tree roots. Archaeologistswere nonetheless able to determine that the burial was primary,flexed, in a seated position, and oriented east to west. The presenceor absence of cranial deformation could not be determined. Theindividual is a young male adult (Kanjou 2002). The copper figur-ine, which was detected just after the burial was removed, was founddirectly below the skeleton proximate to a femur (Figure 5a).

Apart from the copper figurine, this burial also contained fiveMazapan pottery vessels: a miniature plate placed face downdirectly on the area of the feet, two tripod bowls (Figure 5b andc), and a miniature bowl (Figure 5d) placed inside of a sphericalbowl. The tripod bowls, based on the form and paste, areMazapan red-on-white wares (Figure 6). Two worked ceramic frag-ments and a cranium fragment were also recovered.

Figure 4. Stratigraphic location of Mazapa burial 23 in the Atetelco complex at Teotihuacan.

Figure 5. Burial 23 and location of the offerings.

Hosler and Cabrera252

Figurine Description

The figurine weighs 9.95 g and measures 5.7 cm in length (seeFigure 1a and b). The body is flat, the metal measuring only0.2 cm in thickness. The back of the head is slightly concave; theheight of the concavity raises the head 0.9 cm above the plane ofthe body. The length of the head, 1.8 cm, is one-third the totallength of the artifact. The eyes and other facial features are partiallyobscured by corrosion products, but it is clear that the facial featuresare finely detailed. The figurine has its proper left hand on its hip.The other arm, which was broken prior to deposition, is extendedoutward. The missing hand may have held a staff or other objectthat broke away. At the center of the figurine’s midsection there isa small protrusion representing an umbilicus. The ratio of thewaist-to-hip width (0.39) produces a tapered waist and broad hips.Corrosion products suggest a skirt-like garment. The feet arerounded, toeless, splayed, and pointed slightly downward. At thetop of the head is a headpiece with a protrusion at the center andone at each side. Round earrings or ear spools hang from theears. A vertical suspension ring is located at the back of the neck.Figure 1a illustrates the front and back of the figurine. The illus-tration shows that the figurine is open at the back and indicatesthe position and orientation of the suspension ring. Figure 1b speci-fies the sites where we removed samples for our analytical work, andthe caption identifies the analytical procedure followed in the caseof each sample. Those portions of the object where samples wereremoved were subsequently restored.

ANALYTICAL STUDIES

Chemical Compositional Analyses on the Intact Artifact

We initially carried out scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysison the artifact despite the fact that the figurine is heavily corroded andthat we were analyzing surface corrosion products rather than theunderlying artifact metal. Nonetheless the elemental data obtained

are worth reporting. We performed X-ray energy dispersive spectro-metric (XEDS) analyses at an electron energy of 20 kV and collecteddata that identified the major and minor elements present at variouslocations on the corroded surfaces of the figurine. The accuracy ofXEDS in variable pressure mode is not sufficient to determineelemental concentrations precisely. Nevertheless, at a referencepoint on the proper right shoulder of the figurine, we detectedcopper, oxygen, and carbon as major elements and aluminum, potass-ium, magnesium, and iron as minor elements. Copper and oxygencomprised more than half of the material by weight, which is to beexpected when the corrosion products are primarily oxides and car-bonates of copper. These elemental determinations characterizednearly all areas of the artifact that we examined, apart from thehead and neck areas where we also detected iron and arsenic intrace concentrations. The back surfaces of the artifact displayedsimilar spectra: oxygen, copper, and carbon were present in majorconcentrations. Arsenic was present among the minor elementstogether with silicon and aluminum.

Chemical Compositional Analyses of Artifact Samples

SEM-XEDS analyses. We removed the suspension ring at thejunction of the ring and the figure’s neck to provide a cut, uncorrodedmetal surface that could be analyzed for a more accurate determinationof artifact metal composition. We also carried out metallographicstudies of the suspension ring to identify fabrication techniques.Metallographic results are discussed subsequently. We collecteddata from three areas on the cut surface at the back of the neckusing XEDS. In each area the metal contained only two elements:copper and arsenic (Figure 7a). The arsenic spectra are unambiguous,as the spectrum reproduced in Figure 7a makes clear. At the top andbase of the oval-shaped cut we measured the copper concentration atabout 96–99% by weight; the arsenic concentration varies between1% and 4% by weight. At the center of the cut, the arsenic concen-tration was much higher, reaching between 11% and 13% byweight. We discuss the significance of these broad compositionaldifferences in the section on fabrication techniques.

ICP-MS and INAA analyses. Both Inductively CoupledPlasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Instrumental NeutronActivation (INAA) analyses (INAA) were carried out on sampleNo. 1, removed from the proper right arm of the figurine(Figure 1b). The sample was cleaned of external corrosion productsprior to the analysis. The analytical results are given in Figure 7b.The metal is an alloy of copper and arsenic, with the arsenic concen-tration at 1.75 weight percent (the average of the ICP-MS [1.64] andINAA [1.86] values). This value of arsenic concentration corre-sponds to the SEM-XEDS analyses (Figure 7a) determined at thetwo extreme ends of the sections from the exposed metal oval cutwhere the suspension ring was removed.

Lead isotope analyses. We carried out lead isotope analyses onsample No. 2 (Figure 1b). The results are presented in Figure 8,which compares the results of the lead isotope determinationsfrom the figurine with an extensive body of lead isotope datafrom Mesoamerican copper mines (Hosler and Macfarlane 1996),with data collected from Ecuadorian copper deposits in coastaland highland Ecuador by Dorothy Hosler and Andrew Macfarlane(see Macfarlane 1999) and by Macfarlane in earlier, unpublishedwork in Ecuador and northern Peru. As Figure 8 indicates, twoore source areas constitute likely candidates. The most likely is

Figure 6. Mazapa bowl from burial 23.

Mazapa Phase Copper Figurine from Atetelco, Teotihuacan 253

western Mexico where the figurine lead isotope values fall preciselyon two values for Michoacan mines: Inguaran and Bastan. CentralEcuador provides another, but somewhat less likely, alternativesource because the figurine’s lead isotope values fall betweenknown values (Andrew MacFarlane, personal communication2005).2

Fabrication Techniques

Two samples were removed to determine fabrication technique(Figure 1b): one from the proper right arm (Figure 1b front viewsample No. 3), and the other from the suspension ring (Figure 1bside view sample No. 4). Although the sample from the arm (1b3)is extremely thin (0.15 cm) and heavily corroded, the dendriticmicrostructure typical of castmetal is evident in the photomicrograph

in Figure 9. The microstructure provides evidence that the figurinewas cast to shape. The dendrite arms appear gray in the photomicro-graph, whereas the interdendritic spaces appear white. The whitezones correspond to an arsenic-rich alloy; the gray areas containless arsenic than the white zones. This inhomogeneous distributionof arsenic in the alloy is known as coring or segregation and is afunction of the rate of solidification of the molten alloy. A longitudi-nal cross section was cut through the entire suspension ring, and thissection provided the second sample for metallographic investigation(See Figure 1b sample 4). Although the ring is heavily corroded, thedendritic structure is visible even in the corrosion product as well asin tiny areas of residual metal (Figure 10). The photomicrograph inFigure 10 furnishes unambiguous evidence for a cast alloy thatcooled extremely slowly in the mold. Further, pools of the eutecticmicroconstituent are visible in the metal at a magnification of 500,although they are not visible in this photomicrograph (200x). Themetallographic evidence furnished by samples from both the armand the suspension ring provide further evidence that this objectwas cast. Furthermore, the SEM-XEDS analysis of the exposedmetal on the figure where the suspension ring was removed(Figure 7a) shows an extremely high concentration of arsenic(13.5 wgt %) at the center of the cut. This finding strongly suggeststhat the last liquid in the mold, highly enriched in arsenic, solidifiedat the location of the ring. This may also suggest that the ring waslocated proximate to a casting sprue. Since the figurine wasundoubtedly cast by the lost-wax method, and as the back of the fig-urine is open (or hollow), the wax was laid onto and shaped on thefront of a ceramic core; the back of the core was free of wax. Thisconfiguration achieved an open-backed casting once the liquidmetal had solidified and the core was removed.

ORIGINS: THE CENOTE MATERIALS AND APANAMANIAN/COLOMBIAN SOURCE

Where was this figurine cast? Several figurines made using the sameor a similar technique have been dredged from the Cenote ofSacrifice in Yucatan. The Cenote figurines are lost-wax cast fromgold, copper-gold, or copper-silver-gold alloys. Scholarly opinionholds that the Cenote figurines are imports from Panama inChiriqui, Cocle, and Veraguas styles (Lothrop 1952), wherelost-wax castings of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic items consti-tute the basis of that metallurgy. Although dating the Cenotematerials is difficult, researchers argue that Central Americanimports to the Yucatan and the Cenote date to a.d. 800–1150 andthen to a.d. 1250–1539 (Coggins 1984:31). The imported artifactswere subsequently thrown into the Cenote as offerings, then recov-ered in various 20th century dredging projects (Coggins 1984;Lothrop 1952). Some of the stylistic characteristics of theAtetelco figurine suggest a Veraguas, Cocle, or other Panamaniansource. An artifact recovered from the Cenote of Sacrifice andascribed to Veraguas (Lothrop 1952: Figure 96), reproduced herein Figure 11a, exhibits close similarities to the Atetelco figurine,including the partially open back and the orientation and locationof the suspension ring. Root’s analyses of this artifact (Root,1952:Table XXXIV) indicate that it is cast from a copper-silver-goldalloy. Lothrop notes that the Veraguas (Panama) figurines areinvariably male. In his study of the metal artifacts from the SitioConte in the province of Cocle, Panama, Warick Bray (1992) ident-ified those items that fall stylistically within what he terms theInternational Group. Bray describes the qualities of this style thatpertain to the treatment of the human figure as “… generally

Figure 7. Analytical results. (a) XEDS semi-quantitative analysis;(b) ICP–MS and INAA quantitative analysis.

2

Dr. Andrew Macfalane (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Florida International University) constructed this figure based on the leadisotope ratios determined for the figurine, his unpublished data from pre-vious work in Ecuador and Northern Peru, and our work in the summer of2002 to collect ores from seven copper deposits in central and southernEcuador. The lead isotope ratios for ore deposits in Mexico were previouslypublished (Hosler and Macfarlane 1996).

Hosler and Cabrera254

simple, often realistic, and showing none of the extravagance ofclassic Conte or Veraguas jewelry (Bray 1992:35–36). Within thecategory of metal human figurines, Bray defines a Type A (Bray1992:36) whose prototype we illustrate in Figure 11b (Bray 1992:

Figure 3.4a). On stylistic grounds this prototype closely resemblesthe Atetelco figurine; it has no male attributes. Bray relates thistype of human figurine to Quimbaya figures from the CaucaValley of Colombia but maintains that “… within the Isthmus

Figure 8. Results of lead isotope studies from northern Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and West Mexican ores. The star locates the lead isotoperatios for the Atetelco object, the black dots indicate northern Peruvian ore deposits, and the open circles locate deposits from Ecuador.

Figure 10. Photomicrograph of a longitudinal section from the suspensionring. The dendrites are preserved in the corrosion product of the alloy.Magnification: 200. Etchant: potassium dichromate.

Figure 9. Photomicrograph of arm sample No. 3 showing the cast, heavilycored, dendritic structure of the alloy. Magnification: 50. Etchant: potass-ium dichromate.

Mazapa Phase Copper Figurine from Atetelco, Teotihuacan 255

they are no more numerous in Panama than anywhere else” (Bray1992:36). In general, he remarks that both the Colombian andIsthmian examples share certain features that appear regularly,such as headbands, multiple ear ornaments, and spiral adornmentsat the sides of the head (Bray 1992:36). Though some details ofthe Atetelco figurine are destroyed by corrosion, the attributes thatBray considers familiar on Type A figurines appear to be presenton the Atetelco figure. The human figurines belonging to theInternational Group date to Bray’s Period 5 (a.d. 500–700/800)and Period 6 (a.d. 700–800/900) (Bray 1992:34, 36). ThePanamanian dates coincide reasonably well with those of theAtetelco figurine.

Figure 12 illustrates two metal figurines from the Cenote deSacrificios (Figures 12a and 12c) flanking a drawing of theAtetelco figurine (Figure 12b). All three figurines are reproduced atthe same size to facilitate comparisons among them. Coggins(1984) describes the figurine in Figure 12a as having been made inthe Cocle style, “… with ear spirals, half-collar, objects in eitherhand, and characteristic small arms and large thighs” (Coggins1984:65). It is cast in a tumbaga alloy containing 50% copper,47.3% gold, and 3.0% silver, by weight (Coggins 1984: Figure 49).We illustrate it here because of its unusual posture, with the properleft arm bent and the hand at or near the waist, similar to the stance

of the Atetelco figurine. Coggins dates this artifact to a.d. 800–900(Coggins 1984:65). Figure 12c illustrates that the figurine was castwith an open back in the Veraguas style. It has ear spirals andgrasps an object in each hand, in the manner of the CocleInternational Group prototype shown in Figure 11b. We reproduceit here to show the similarity between this figurine’s head piece andthe one worn by the Atetelco figurine. The Figure 12c figurine wascast from an alloy containing 96.4% gold and 3.6% silver, byweight. Coggins dates the artifact to a.d. 900–1150 (Coggins 1984:80). The analyses of both Cenote figurines (Figures 12a and 12c)are reported in Lothrop (1952: tables 31, 32). Comparison of the pro-duction technology of the Atetelco figurine and that of the Panamafigurines provides yet other clues. The Atetelco figurine was castwith an open back, an attribute that Lothrop (1950) identifies ascharacteristic of Veraguas figurines. Lothrop observes that the chiefdifference between the fabrication of Cocle and Veraguas pendantsis that the Cocle pieces were generally cast in the round over a claycore, whereas the Veraguas items “… always were cast with anopen back” (Lothrop 1952:100). In terms of the casting process,then, the Atetelco figurine falls in the camp of the Veraguas pendants.This evidence, which draws on fabrication techniques and style,makes clear that the Atetelco figurine closely resemblesPanamanian and Colombian items cited by Bray. Its date also fitswith Warwick Bray’s dates for the International Group Style. Yetthe fact that the chemical composition of the Atetelco artifact—aCu-As alloy—is totally anomalous for Colombian and lowerCentral American castings greatly complicates the problem andraises other possibilities for the origin of this object.

Compositional Considerations: A Colombian/Ecuadorian Source ?

Copper deposits are common in Panama and present in Colombia.Data concerning deposits of tennantite (a copper sulfarsenide ore)or arsenopyrite (an iron sulfarsenide ore) are less readily availablebut these ores are known from Colombia and probably occasionallyfound in Panama. The difficulty is that, to date, no metal artifacts ana-lyzed from these regions—save several Colombian cold-worked toolsthat are imports from Ecuador—have been found to contain arsenic asan alloying element. Most artifacts from Colombia, Panama, andCosta Rica, including figurines, consist of copper-gold andcopper-silver-gold lost-wax and open-mold castings (Hosler 1994;Root 1937, 1952). At the same time, copper-arsenic alloy objectsare extremely common in the Central Andes, especially in Ecuadorand Peru, from about a.d. 300 through the Spanish invasion(Hosler 1994: Chapter 4). Arsenic-bearing copper ores are abundantin this area, as documented elsewhere. Yet nearly all of the artifactsmade from copper-arsenic alloys are cold-worked to shape.Lost-wax cast items are highly unusual in this Central Andean(Ecuador and northern Peru) zone. Nonetheless, the southwesternmetallurgical province of Colombia is adjacent to the border withEcuador (Figure 13), and iconographic features and artifacts areshared by both areas (Plazas 2007). This raises the possibility thatthe artifact was cast from Ecuadorian metal using a Colombian fabri-cation technique and subsequently imported to Mesoamerica.

A Mesoamerican Source ?

Apart from the location of this find in a Mazapan burial, the two othermost notable features are the fact that the object is a figurine, and that itwas cast from a copper-arsenic alloy. The lead isotope data (Figure 8)

Figure 11. (a) Representation of a Veraguas-type figurine from the Cenotede Sacrificios, Chichen ltza (after Lothrop 1952: Figure 96); (b) Illustrationof a prototype of Cocle-type metal figurines of the International Group(after Bray 1992: Figure 3.4a).

Figure 12. (a) Image of a Cocle-style figurine from the Cenote de Sacrificios(Coggins 1984: Figure 49, height 5.7 cm); note the position of the properleft arm, which is similar to the Atetelco figurine illustrated in (b) (Coggins1984: Figure 74, height 4.9 cm). (c) illustrates a Veraguas-type figurinefrom the Cenote de Sacrificios; note the similarity between this figure’sheaddress and that of the Atetelco figurine. All three figurines havebeen reproduced here at the same size to facilitate comparisons amongthem.

Hosler and Cabrera256

assign a slightly higher probability to manufacture in West Mexico/Michoacan than in Ecuador. We need to emphasize that realisticmetal figurines are uncommon in the ancient Mesoamerican artifactcorpus apart from those dredged from the Cenote de Sacrificios inYucatan, discussed earlier, and imported from lower CentralAmerica. Two other examples are mentioned by Saville (1920): onefrom Tehuantepec and the other from El Tajin. Teobert Maler(1942) cites a third figurine from a looted Zapotec burial (no illus-tration) described as a seated Zapotec king. None resembles theAtetelco figurine. However, four open-backed cast human figur-ines—several partial, one complete—appear in the collections of theRegional Museum of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico. Macroscopicexaminations indicate that these objects are cast from copper or a

copper alloy. One (Figure 14) measures 5 cm in length, has theproper left had on the hip, and the right hand holds a staff or otherobject. The figurine has no distinguishing secondary sexual character-istics. The figurine wears a necklace of bells, which constitute typicalwest Mexican designs (Hosler 1994), and bells around the waist.Fragments of two other open-backed figurines, cast from copper orcopper alloys, also appear in the MRG collections. The significanceof these figurines cannot be overstated because they provide theonly known west Mexican examples of the open-backed productiontechnique used to make copper or copper alloy figurines. Further,the design characteristics of the figurine illustrated in Figure 14—anecklace and waistband of West Mexican style bells—clearly reflectthis figurine’s West Mexican origins.

Turning to the alloy type, copper-arsenic alloy objects were extre-mely common in western Mexico after about a.d. 1150 (especiallylost-wax cast bells, cold-worked ornaments, cold-worked needles,axes, awls, and other items) (Hosler 1986, 1988a, 1994). The northernAndes and West Mexico are the two zones in the Americas wheremetalworkers frequently employed this alloy type. In the northernAndes, copper-arsenic alloys were cold-worked; in west Mexicosome were lost-wax cast, others cold-worked. In Mesoamerica arseno-pyrite is the most common ore of arsenic and was the primary ore usedfor the manufacture of Cu-As objects (Hosler 1994; Chapter 2). Themost significant examples of lost-wax castings from copper-arsenicalloys anywhere in the Americas come from the west Mexican metal-working zone and consist of intricate, extremely thin-walled(0.02 cm–0.05 cm) bells whose design parameters required the solidi-fication characteristics of a copper alloy. Alloys are used in thin-walledcastings because they solidify over a range of temperatures (not at a

Figure 14. Open-back cast figurine from the Museo Regional deGuadalajara (MRG), Jalisco, Mexico.

Figure 13. Map showing location of areas and sites mentioned in text.

Mazapa Phase Copper Figurine from Atetelco, Teotihuacan 257

single temperature, as is the case with pure metals), so that the liquidmetal has time to flow into and fill all the intricate details of themold before the casting solidifies completely. We do not know if analloy was necessary to produce the Atetelco figurine since even thethinnest areas (ear spools) are relatively thick (0.8 cm). Nonethelesswest Mexico makes a plausible source for the Atetelco figurine bothin terms of alloy type and casting technology.

DISCUSSION

Two regions thus constitute possible production zones for this figurine:Colombia/Ecuador (the southwestern metallurgical province) or theWest Mexican metalworking zone. As mentioned, the use of copper-arsenic alloys, including lost-wax castings (apart from figurines), iscommon in the West Mexican metalworking zone, but only aftera.d. 1150. We should note that in southeastern Mesoamerica a localmetalworking technology was established around 1150 wherecopper lost-wax cast bells and other small cast items were common(Hosler 1994). This area is an unlikely source for the Atetelco figurine.None of the chemical analyses of these southeastern Mesoamericanlost-wax cast objects contains arsenic as the sole alloying element.What is more, the lead isotope signatures for Oaxacan ore deposits(which may have served as source material for these southeasternitems) do not conform to the lead isotope results for the Atetelco fig-urinewhich fall squarely in the fields of the Inguaran and Bastan minesin Michoacan and, more generally, within the Ecuadorian lead isotopicfields. An extensive body of research has documented that someaspects of West Mexican metallurgy (cold-working techniques) wereintroduced from the central Andean region (Ecuador and NorthernPeru) and that the west Mexican casting technology derived fromlower Central America and Colombia (Figure 13) (see, for example,Dewan and Hosler 2008; Garcia 2007; Hosler 1986, 1988a, 1988b,1994, 2005). One plausible explanation is that the Atetelco figurinewas cast in Ecuador/Colombia then transported north through thesame exchange systems responsible for the figurines discussed

earlier that were dredged from the Cenote of Sacrifice. The Atetelcoobject was then moved to the central highlands. Documentation ofsuch an exchange system is beyond the scope of the present paper,but this transport route must be considered. Another explanation isthat the figurine arrived from Ecuador via the better-studied maritimeroute responsible for the introduction of metallurgy from SouthAmerica toWest Mexico. Yet the four MRG examples of open-backedcastings of human figurines found in West Mexico made from copperor copper alloys, coupled with the fact that one of them displays unam-biguous West Mexican iconography, suggests that these open-backedcastings were cast from West Mexican metal and in west Mexico.Taken as a whole, the evidence (stylistic characteristics, metal andalloys, lead isotope data, and now fabrication methods) points towest Mexico as the place of manufacture for the Atetelco figurine.Although the explanation for the presence of this figurine in aMazapan phase burial is still an enigma, we should certainly belooking for similar figurines in other Michoacan/west Mexican con-texts. But quite apart from the place of manufacture, how do weexplain that this tradition of lost-wax cast open-backed figurines didnot take off and become a mainstay of West Mexican metal pro-duction? We have no answers except that west Mexican metalsmithswere interested in metal for its properties of sound and color (Hosler1994, 2005)—in bells and in sheet metal—rather than in the pro-duction of cast metal human figurines and other cast ornaments. Itmay be the case that a number of South and Central American tech-niques and artifact classes were initially part of the west Mexicanexperimental repertoire and were eventually discarded for technicalor social reasons, (or both) but that at least a single example of oneof these artifact classes—this particular lost-wax cast open-backed fig-urine produced in the west—somehow made its way from the west tothe Valley of Teotitihuacan and to the Atetelco burial. This case of pre-industrial technology transfer patently demonstrates that not allelements of an introduced technology become incorporated into thetechnological mainstream, for a variety of reasons, but that they some-times can and do leave material remains.

RESUMEN

En excavaciones de la fase Mazapa en el complejo Atetelco de Teotihuacánconducidas por el Ruben Cabrera y sus colegas fue encontrada una pequeñafigurilla humana de cobre. Este hallazgo no tiene precedentes y es sumamentesignificante cuanto a cuestiones del desarrollo de la metalurgia enMesoamérica y para las transferencias de las tecnologías en general. Los estu-dios previos sobre la metalurgia Mesoamericana han indicado que la metalur-gia fue introducida alrededor de 700 d.C. desde Colombia, Ecuador y losAndes Centrales. Esta figurilla en particular representa un hallazgo muyfuera del patrón: las fechas (800–900 d.C.) preceden a los artefactos decobre encontrados en el centro de México. La técnica utilizada (vaciado deespalda abierta) es rara en Mesoamérica, pero común en Colombia yPanamá. Algunas figurillas de vaciado de espalda abierta han sido encontradasen el Cenote de Sacrificios en Yucatán, México, pero estas están hechas dealeaciones de cobre-oro y fueron importadas desde Centroamérica oColombia. La figurilla de Atetelco esta hecha de una aleación de

cobre-arsénico. Los objetos de aleación de cobre-arsénico son comunes enel Occidente de México (después de 1150 d.C.), al igual que en Ecuador yel Norte de Peru (después de 300 d.C.). La cuestión fundamental en relacióncon este objeto es si éste fue fabricado en Ecuador o Colombia y luego impor-tado, o si por el contrario fue fabricado en el Occidente de México. Nuestrosestudios de la composición química del artefacto, las técnicas de manufactura yla procedencia, indican que la figurilla pudo haberse fabricado en el Occidentede México. Sugerimos que mientras esta técnica de manufactura (figurillashumanas vaciadas a la cera perdida con espalda abierta) fue introducidadesde Colombia nunca llegó a ser un componente significante de latradición metalúrgica Mesoamericana, Sin embargo deja huella del procesode las transferencias de las tecnologías —en las cuales se incorporan los ele-mentos por su forma, metal, manufactureo o otros factores llevan un signifi-cado social. o crean o representan .una realidad que coincide o extiende lasperceptiones y creencias delas sociedades que las incorporan.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Consejo de Arqueología, National Institute ofAnthropology and History, Mexico City, for permission to study at MIT,to sample, to restore, and to conserve the Atetelco artifact; Prof. OttoSchöndube of the Regional Museum of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco,

Mexico, for facilitating aspects of this work; Dr. Elizabeth Hendrix for arti-fact restoration and conservation; Dr. Andrew Macfarlane for the leadisotope analyses; Johan Garcia for extensive work on illustrations andgraphics; and Hannah Reitzel for help with the texr.

Hosler and Cabrera258

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