Diachronic and Synchronic Analyses of Obsidian Procurement in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of Obsidian

Obsidian fragments were excavated from culturally meaningful contexts (e.g., storage pits, middens, etc.) at Etlatongo. Obsidian, the sharp edge of which made it crucial to the daily lives of ancient Mesoamericans, has proven extremely useful to archaeologists examining ancient exchange because archaeological fragments can be linked to the actual obsidian sources throughout Mesoamerica. Obsidian sources quarried by Mesoamericans have been identified throughout México and Guatemala in two major zones of volcanism (see Figure 1). An ongoing project directed by Michael Glascock at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) has been to characterize these sources through Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA); chemical "fingerprints" have been developed for approximately forty obsidian sources throughout Mesoamerica (Glascock et al. 1994:29). Because the chemical variability is greater between obsidian sources than within a single source, obsidian fragments retrieved from archaeological excavations can be matched to specific sources (see Figure 2).

In order to explore Cruz B interaction at Etlatongo, I initially conducted a trial project that employed INAA on a sample of 45 obsidian artifacts (Blomster and Glascock 2002). Large pieces were selected from three Cruz B contexts at Etlatongo. All obsidian fragments from these three contexts were successfully tied to a surprisingly high number of sources – seven (see Appendix 1). Of direct relevance to the nature of the relationship between the Nochixtlán Valley and the Valley of Oaxaca, the frequencies of the sources utilized at Etlatongo differ substantially from contemporaneous Valley of Oaxaca villages, where the majority of obsidian came from Otumba, Guadalupe Victoria, and West México. At Etlatongo, Paredón, Puebla (in the Basin of México), provided the majority of samples. The data also showed synchronic variation in the obsidian sources utilized in the three contexts at Etlatongo.

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