Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

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EMILIANO R. MELGAR
In addition, this analysis suggests that the
wider distribution of Oliva pendants is a direct
result of the fact that their production is less time
and work consuming (2-15 hours of work) than that
of other objects, such as inlays, beads, and pendants
(50-100 hours of work).
Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that the
only type of shell object which was re-used or recycled
in the site is pendants. The xochicalcas
reworked these pendants with transversal and longitudinal
cuts that required much more time than
during the production of the original object.
However, none of the inlays were placed as offerings
and they were treated more like garbage. A
likely explanation may be that the pendants, which
may have once been the prized possession of
warriors, were reworked as a gesture of desecration.
This is consistent with the more general pattern
observable during the final years of the site's
occupation, before the last great pillage and fire.
At that time, there are evidence of conflicts between
the leading groups and the destruction of
objects of power such as the iconographically
reliefs which were covered with stucco (Garza and
González 2005: 202).
5. CONCLUSIONS
As it has been observed, the automorphic
pendants made, as prestige goods, out of various
species of Oliva, mostly originating from shorelines
of the Pacific Ocean, are the most ancient shell
objects placed in offerings at Xochicalco.
Each string of pendants displays different perforation
manufacturing techniques. Thanks to
experimental archaeology and the analysis of
manufacturing traces using stereoscopic microscope
and a scanning electron microscope, it was
possible to identify three different processes
employed in the elaboration of these pieces: sand
with reed, chert burins and obsidian flakes. This
heterogeneity of tools used to produce the same
modification could be a result of different groups of
artisans or workshops that made them, probably
without any control by the elite. It also contrasts
with a standardisation of tools identified in the later
contexts, where all objects were abraded with
basalt, cut with obsidian flakes and drilled with
chert. In this way, only the inlays made from reused
pendants match this manufacturing tendency,
all being cut with obsidian. Also these pendants
stand out for being the only shell objects reused
at the site, possibly as a desecration of
warrior insignias, as a reflection of conflicts operating
then among leading groups, before the final
abandonment of the site.
Finally, it is important to stress the necessity of
this kind of study for other shell material collections
in order to identify manufacturing patterns
and to infer aspects of production and organization,
and perhaps styles and technological traditions
across time.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We address special thanks to Silvia Garza,
Norberto González, Claudia Alvarado, Adrián
Velázquez, and all the members of the Xochicalco
Project and the Experimental Archaeology Shell
Workshop to Norma Valentín, Belem Zuñiga, and
Antonio Alva, and finally Ana Laura Solís, Victor
Solís, Kim Richter, for their comments and suggestions
Virginia Fields, Bruce Bradley and Victoria
Stosel for helping us with the English translation.
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MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián