Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico
© 2020 Meanwell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This study presents evidence of two tuyèr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133054 |
| _version_ | 1826191907981623296 |
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| author | Meanwell, Jennifer L Paris, Elizabeth H Peraza Lope, Carlos Seymour, Linda M Masic, Admir |
| author2 | Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology |
| author_facet | Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology Meanwell, Jennifer L Paris, Elizabeth H Peraza Lope, Carlos Seymour, Linda M Masic, Admir |
| author_sort | Meanwell, Jennifer L |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2020 Meanwell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This study presents evidence of two tuyères, or blowpipe tips, used in metalworking at the Postclassic period city of Mayapán. Blowpipe technology has long been hypothesized to be the production technique for introducing oxygen to furnaces during the metal casting process on the basis of ethnohistorical depictions of the process in ancient Mesoamerica. To our knowledge, the tuyères recovered at Mayapán are the first archaeologically documented tuyères for pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The dimensions, internal perforation, vitrification, and presence of copper prills within the ceramic fabric, suggest that they were used in pyrotechnological production, likely metalworking, and is consistent with previous evidence for small-scale metalworking at Mayapán. Blowpipe use in metallurgical production is a logical extension of a much longer tradition of blowgun use in hunting, which was likely already present in Mesoamerica by the time metal was introduced to West Mexico from South America. Furthermore, the dimensions of the Mayapán tuyères are consistent with the internal diameter of ethnohistorically-documented blowguns from Jacaltenango in the southwest Maya region. We conducted replication experiments that suggest that when combined with wooden blowpipes, the Mayapán tuyères would have been ideal for small-scale, furnace-based metallurgy, of the type identified at Mayapán from Postclassic period contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:03:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/133054 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:03:10Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1330542024-06-06T14:01:20Z Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico Meanwell, Jennifer L Paris, Elizabeth H Peraza Lope, Carlos Seymour, Linda M Masic, Admir Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering © 2020 Meanwell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This study presents evidence of two tuyères, or blowpipe tips, used in metalworking at the Postclassic period city of Mayapán. Blowpipe technology has long been hypothesized to be the production technique for introducing oxygen to furnaces during the metal casting process on the basis of ethnohistorical depictions of the process in ancient Mesoamerica. To our knowledge, the tuyères recovered at Mayapán are the first archaeologically documented tuyères for pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The dimensions, internal perforation, vitrification, and presence of copper prills within the ceramic fabric, suggest that they were used in pyrotechnological production, likely metalworking, and is consistent with previous evidence for small-scale metalworking at Mayapán. Blowpipe use in metallurgical production is a logical extension of a much longer tradition of blowgun use in hunting, which was likely already present in Mesoamerica by the time metal was introduced to West Mexico from South America. Furthermore, the dimensions of the Mayapán tuyères are consistent with the internal diameter of ethnohistorically-documented blowguns from Jacaltenango in the southwest Maya region. We conducted replication experiments that suggest that when combined with wooden blowpipes, the Mayapán tuyères would have been ideal for small-scale, furnace-based metallurgy, of the type identified at Mayapán from Postclassic period contexts. 2021-10-19T17:07:37Z 2021-10-19T17:07:37Z 2020-08 2020-05 2021-10-19T15:01:44Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133054 Meanwell JL, Paris EH, Peraza Lope C, Seymour LM, Masic A (2020) Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0238885 en 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0238885 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Public Library of Science (PLoS) PLoS |
| spellingShingle | Meanwell, Jennifer L Paris, Elizabeth H Peraza Lope, Carlos Seymour, Linda M Masic, Admir Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title | Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title_full | Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title_fullStr | Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title_short | Blowpipes and their metalworking applications: New evidence from Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico |
| title_sort | blowpipes and their metalworking applications new evidence from mayapan yucatan mexico |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133054 |
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