Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

The Maya nacreous shell garment of Oxtankah (Quintana Roo, México)
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Figure 3. The tombs found inside the Structure VI.
functional and morphological aspects. We followed
the model proposed by Lourdes Suárez
(1977) and Adrián Velázquez (1999).
The 1664 shell pieces – 1547 complete and
117 fragments– were divided in two types of
objects (beads and pendants), and four species,
three Caribbean molluscs (Pinctada imbricata,
Strombus alatus, and Strombus gigas), and one
freshwater shell (Unio sp). The objects have three
different shapes: circles, rectangles and “L” forms.
The biggest group has 1630 nacreous circular
beads, 1513 are complete and 117 fragments.
The objects were probably made from Pinctada
imbricata and/or Unio. The pieces have only one
polished surface. There are 612 with two plane
surfaces and 895 have curved ones. Also, there
are 1517 with a hole near the edge and 113 have
a hole in the middle of the piece. Their dimensions
are between 0.4 to 1 cm diameter, and 0.01
to 0.15 cm high.
There are 28 pendants made of Strombus alatus,
with a rectangular shape. 17 have curved surfaces
and 11 have irregular ones. Those characteristics
are related with the natural shape of the shell
they were made of. All have abrading and polished
surfaces in one side in order to eliminate the
natural irregularities of the spire. All have rounded
corners, conic or biconic holes in the top and lateral
cuts for its setting. Their dimensions are from
1.6 cm to 2.05 cm high, 2.2. to 2.9 cm long and 0.3
to 0.75 cm width.
There are also three pairs of Strombus gigas pendants.
Three of them have “L” shape, and the other
three have inversed “L” forms. They have only one
polished surface. Three have a convex shape, two
have one plain face and a convex one, and the last
one has a curved shape. All have a conic or biconic
orifice in the top. Their dimensions are from 2.4 to 3
cm high, 4.05 to 4.25 tall and 0.6 to 0.75 cm width.
4. STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE SETTING
While all the shell pieces have at least one hole,
in the beginning the unit was interpreted as necklaces.
Otherwise, as we saw later, during the particular
analysis and treatment, we observed some
aspects that allowed us to consider a new hypothesis
for the elements based in their formal characteristics,
the iconographical data and with our
own experience in the study or other shell prehispanic
pieces, like the cuirass of Tula, and the aquatic
circles of chamber two at the Templo Mayor of
Tenochtitlan (Gallardo and Velázquez 2008). With
those elements we could establish a new interpretation
for the objects as a garment formed by the
shell elements. In order to demonstrate our idea we
analyzed the manufacture traces of the items, with
special attention to the polished surfaces.
5. ANALYSIS OF MANUFACTURE TRACES
The analysis of the manufacture traces of the
shell objects is based on the results of “Proyecto
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián