Glascock, and 6 co-authors, reported in 2010 that a comprehensive geochemical study of obsidian sources from the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas located in western Mexico was undertaken. The authors provided the results of chemical analysis for more than 1,000 obsidian samples taken from source localities in these states using X-ray Fluorescence and Neutron Activation Analysis. The chemical results are compared to the geographic data to establish a geochemical database useful for archaeological interpretation. Recent artifact studies from sites in Jalisco and Nayarit have demonstrated the potential of the database for studying procurement and exchange in a long under-appreciated region.
The authors concluded that in western Mexico, especially along the northern flanks of the Jalisco Block, there existed a series of major obsidian mining complexes that were active from Formative to late Post-Classic times. The Tequila/Coli axis has the evidence for the most intensive extraction activities during this 2500- 3000 year time period. Some of the complexes, such as La Joya, Teuchitlán-La Mora, and San Juan de los Arcos, had specialized workshops nearby, which themselves were immense. The prismatic blade workshop at Las Cuevas is the largest workshop located to date within all of western Mexico, covering approximately 15 hectares and with millions of pieces of obsidian debris on the surface. These mining areas have, in the composite, thousands of quarries. Several have chambered underground mines of significant
proportions, mostly for exotic colors such as green and red.
The range of colors is impressive: green, blue, grey, black, yellow, white, red, orange, and mixtures thereof, solid colors or translucent, including gold and silver tinged material as well as the nowadays highly popular ‘rainbow’ variety. Overall, the quality of these obsidians is good to excellent. Since the Tequila/Coli axis is also the nuclear area for western Mexico’s first experiment in civilization, called the Teuchitlán Tradition, it seems obvious that this high profile of obsidian procurement is one of the explanations for the rise of this early complex social system.
Original working URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236850187_Geochemical_characterisation_of_obsidian_in_Western_Mexico_the_sources_in_Jalisco_Nayarit_and_Zacatecas
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