Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

Malacological Material from Pezuapan’s Archaeological site, Chilpancingo (Guerrero, Mexico)
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Figure 11. Southwest portion.
possible storage rooms and with construction filling.
They are characterized by joined rooms and walls,
some made with mud blocks, others with limestone
and andesite blocks joined and flattened with stucco
and mud. All the rooms have stucco floors,
whose superposition leads us to believe they were
continually maintained.
In the northern corner of the room area, five
molluscs without cultural modification of the species:
Crasostrea sp., Strombus gracilior, Chama
echinata and Spondylus sp were found. This context
is highly degraded, because for a long time it
served as a dump, whose waste slowly covered
the third level of the foundation.
As far as the east façade of the structure is
concerned, seven unmodified elements of the
species Chama, Euglandina, Pecten and Chiton
were found; and in this same context a semicircular
bead made with Pinctada mazatlanica was also
recovered. This material is associated with two
spaces, possibly domestic in nature, which were
joined to the main facade of the third storey. In the
same way, 29 units without cultural modification
were registered, most of which were of the
Crasostrea genus - surely modern, since they were
recovered on the surface - and in smaller quantities
we find Chama, as well as Euglandina sp. Two
full pendants were also found, one automorphic of
the Turritella leucostoma species and one xenomorphic
manufactured from Pinctada mazatlanica.
6. COMMENTS CONCERNING PEZUAPAN’S
CONCH MATERIAL. PRELIMINARY HYPOTHESIS
As we have seen, Pezuapan’s malacological
material appears in contexts with limited access,
which is not surprising, since from early periods,
shell was considered sacred by the people of the
ancient Mexico, since it was associated with water
and the underworld. In addition, its exotic origin
and the difficulty with which it was obtainable promoted
its use as a symbol to justify and maintain a
high ranking position in the hierarchy.
Since the site’s investigation has just begun,
we cannot affirm that conch objects were produced
there, because there is no hard evidence to
sustain the idea; however, the large quantity of
unmodified mollusks recovered in rooms and elite
spaces remains interesting. This leads us to believe
the inhabitants of the site possibly obtained the
shells through trade networks with the Guerrero
coastal settlements in order to be consumed in
contexts of limited access.
Although the quantity of manufactured objects
found is minimal, the large amount of species with no
modifications whatsoever present at the site remains
interesting. This helps us to think about the distance
which the inhabitants would travel in order to obtain
the molluscs and transport them back to the site; for
if they were hardly consumed at Pezuapan it would
have easier to acquire them already manufactured
(Melgar, 2008: personal communication).
The latter points to the fact that the site did not
acquire a significant amount of marine resources
because it could have been a satellite to a more
important site, possibly in Central Mexico.
Situated on the trade routes between the coast
and the Central Highlands, it absorbed a smaller
amount of goods.
Another objective of this analysis is to define
the tools used to manufacture these pieces. This is
achieved through experimental archaeology and
the analysis of the various modifications of the
material with the Scanning Electron Microscope.
This way it is possible to reconstruct the production
process and determine if they were manufactured
in a single or several workshops, depending
on either standardization or diversity in tools and
processes (Velázquez 2004).
For the reason, it is necessary to continue exploring
the site and in doing so, contribute data about
the settlement’s functions and the activities that took
place there, as well as the social, political, economic
and religious organization of its inhabitants.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We give special thanks to archaeologists Miguel
Pérez, Adrián Velázquez, Emiliano Melgar, and the
biologist Norma Valentín and Belem Zuñiga, for their
comments and suggestions and finally Ana Laura
Solís, Victor Solís and Sandra Monterrosa for helping
us with the English translation.
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián