The Huastec Region: A Second Locus for the Production of Bronze Alloys in Ancient Mesoamerica
Dorothy Hosler 1 and
Guy Stresser-Pean 2
1 Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology and the Anthropology/Archaeology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
2 Ethnographic Mission in Mexico; Sierra Paracaima 1185, 11010 Mexico 10 DF
Chemical analyses of 51 metal artifacts, one ingot, and two pieces of intermediate processed material from two Late Post Classic archeological sites in the Huastec area of Eastern Mesoamerica point to a second production locus for copper-arsenic-tin alloys, copper-arsenic-tin artifacts, and probably copper-tin and copper-arsenic bronze artifacts. Earlier evidence had indicated that these bronze alloys were produced exclusively in West Mexico. West Mexico was the region where metallurgy first developed in Mesoamerica, although major elements of that technology had been introduced from the metallurgies of Central and South America. The bronze working component of Huastec metallurgy was transmitted from the metalworking regions of West Mexico, most likely through market systems that distributed Aztec goods.
