DOROTHY

HOSLER
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy: South and

Central American Origins and West Mexican
Transformations

Metal/ur,gjrst appeared in Mesoamerica at about A.D. 800, introduced via a maritime route
from Central and South America into West Mexico. During the initial period oftht establishment
ofthe technology (apjroximately A.D. 800 to between A.D. 1200 and 1300) technical links were
closest with the metallurgies of Ecuador, Colombia, and lower Central America. During the
second period of West Mexican metallurgy (A.D. 1200-1300 to the Spanish invasion) new ele-
ments from these same regional metallurgies were introduced, in addition to technical components
Jrom the metallurgy of southern Peru. Although the roots of West Mexican metallurgy lay in the
metallurgies to the south, the elements that had been introducedfrom those areas were reinterpreted
and transformed, resulting in the development o f a technically original, highly inventive regional
technology in West Mexico.

T H E SUDDEN A N D LATE APPEARANCE O F METAI,I.UR(:Y IN

A . D . 800 is one of the most important events in the history
MESOAMI..RIC:A
of New World cultures.
The earliest evidence comes from West Mexico, the region that later became the locus of
around

a rich and sophisticated metallurgical tradition. By the time of the Spanish invasion, a
multifaceted and complex technology based on copper had emerged there. Unlike certain
Old World metallurgies in which tools and implements constituted the bulk of the metal-
lurgical repertoire, in West Mexico metal came to be used principally for objects dcmar-
cating sacred and elite domains of culture. Thc properties of the new material that most
interested West Mexican smiths were its resonant qualities and its color. It was in rcla-
tion to these two properties that West Mexican metallurgy made its most original tcch-
nical contributions to the ancient metallurgies of the Americas (Hosler 1986, 1987).
Most scholars agree that metallurgy was not indigenous to West Mexico but was in-
troduced (Arsandaux and Rivet 1921; Meighan 1969; Mountjoy 1969; Pendergast 1962;
Willcy 1966) from either Central or South Amrrica, perhaps via a maritime route. The
introduction of such a technology constitutes a key issue in New World culture history
because it implies relations between these geographical areas of sufficient intensity and
duration to transfer a complex body of knowledge and techniques. It is now possible to
examine the question systematically by evaluating recent information concerning the
technology and chronology of West Mexican metallurgy (Hosler 1986, 1988)' in light of
comparable data from the metallurgies of Central and South America. I have used that
information here to identify the geographical origins of West Mexican metallurgy and t o
explore some of the broader issues raised by the appearance of the new technology.
One issue concerns how such a technology was introduced to West Mexico. My data
indicate that a maritime exchange system, based in Ecuador, transmitted technical
know-how, and sometimes artifacts, to West Mexico from Ecuador, Colombia, and lower
Central America during the initial period of the technology (approximately A.D. 800 to

l)OROTtlY HOSIXRis Post-lhctoral Associate, Center,for Materialr Research in Archaeologv and Ethnolo,<v, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridfe, M A 021.79.

832
Hosler] ANCIENTWEST MEXICAN
METAl.1.liRG.Y 833

between A.D. 1200 and 1300) (Hosler 1986, 1988). During the second period of West
Mexican metallurgical development (A.D. 1200-1 300 to the Spanish invasion), new ele-
ments from these same regional metallurgies were introduced to West Mexico along with
elements characteristic of the metallurgy of southern Peru. Such elements appear at ap-
proximately the same time that the Andean segment of the maritime system expanded,
with the development of a long-distance maritime trading organization based at Chincha,
on the south coast of Peru.
Another issue concerns how the incorporation of this foreign technology was mediated
by the indigenous culture. Not all facets of Andean and Central American metallurgies
were developed in West Mexico, despite the availability there of the ores and metals
(Hosler 1986) required to reproduce those technologies. Although West Mexican metal-
lurgy was structured by technical elements introduced from Central and South America,
these were, in many cases, reinterpreted and transformed. At the same time that the tech-
nology embodied cultural attitudes toward metals common to ancient American metal-
lurgies (Hosler 1986, 1987), in West Mexico such attitudes were expressed in a unique
and technically original fashion.

West Mexican Metallurgy

Metal was used in West Mexico for a relatively short time, between approximately
A.D. 800 and the Spanish invasion. Nonetheless, the technology that flourished in that
mineral-rich region eventually employed a wide range of metals-including copper, sil-
ver and gold-and of alloys, such as the binary alloys of copper-silver, copper-arsenic,
and copper-tin (Hosler 1986). These metals and their alloys were utilized to fashion a
constellation of objects whose primary cultural function was to empower elites and rulers
by symbolically associating them with the supernatural. Bells, cast to shape using the
lost-wax technique, were manufactured in greater quantity in West Mexico than any
other object made of metal. According to ethnohistoric sources, metal bells were worn by
deities, as well as by rulers and members of the upper classes. In fact, metal was consid-
ered quintessentially appropriate for making bells; in each of three indigenous Mesoam-
erican languages the word for “metal” and “bell” and a “good sound” is the same word
(Hosler 1986, 1987). Other common artifacts were small open rings-some that appar-
ently held fabric hair braids or bands-and sheet metal objects, such as breast plates,
shields, crescent pendants, and discs. The smiths also fashioned tweezers, which, in ad-
dition to their use for depilation, were extremely important status objects. Axes, needles,
awls, fishhooks, and other tools and implements were also crafted, but they comprise only
a small proportion of the total.
This technology underwent a fundamental change in the period from about A.D. 1200
to 1300. Prior to that time, the principal metal used was copper, although silver and gold
were also occasionally employed. During the period in question copper continued to be
used as before, but three binary copper alloys were also utilized-copper-silver, and the
two bronzes, copper-tin and copper-arsenic-in addition to a ternary alloy of copper,
arsenic, and tin (Hosler 1986, 1988). In most cases the artifacts made from the alloys
were morphologically distinct subtypes of objects still being made in copper. But the al-
loys in question are dramatically different in color and mechanical properties from the
pure metal, and laboratory studies have demonstrated that such alloys were often tech-
nically necessary to achieve the new designs as well as to the object’s instrumental func-
tion (Hosler 1986, 1988).* However, the alloying elements were used in concentrations
far higher than necessary to meet the mechanical demands of the new designs. They were
combined with copper for color-in the golden hues that develop with increasing
amounts of tin, and for the silvery colors of the high-arsenic copper-arsenic alloys.
When considered in conjunction with information concerning thc metallurgies of Cen-
tral and South America, these technical and chronological data unequivocally substan-
tiate the historical relations between West Mexican metallurgy and the metallurgies to
the south. During each of thr two periods in question (A.D. 800 to A.D. 1200-1 300, and
A.D. 1200-1300 to the Spanish invasion), specific components of West Mexican metal-
lurgy were introduced from Central and South America (see Figure 1 ) . Some derive from
lower Central America and Colombia, where the earliest evidence for metallurgy dates
to about 100 B.C. Others were introduced from Ecuador and northern Peru; in Ecuador
the earliest firm evidence for metallurgy thus far occurs during the Regional Develop-
mental period (500 B.C.-A.D. 500), although rrcent findings indicate that the technology
appeared therr even earlier. Southern Peru and the adjacent Bolivian highlands, where

PACIFIC OCEAN

- 0 I I200 Km

iM006-0

Figure 1
Map of geographical areas under discussion and sites and regions mentioned in text.
metalworking had taken root by about 800 B.C., contributed yet other elements to West
Mexican metallurgy.

The Metallurgies of South and Central America

This vast region encompasses two distinct metallurgical culture areas, lower Central
America and Colombia on the one hand, and southern Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia on the
other. They differ in the metals and alloys used, in the disparate approaches to shaping
metal objects, and in the kinds of objects that were made from metal. The people living
in the region encompassing southern Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia used copper, silver,
gold, and their alloys extensively, in addition to the two bronzes, copper-tin and copper-
arsenic. The bronzes were widely used for tools and implements, the other metals and
alloys to fashion silvery and golden objects for status display. Apart from an emphasis on
color, achieved through the elaboration of sophisticated surface enrichment techniques
applied to copper-gold, copper-silver, and other alloys, one of the hallmarks of the me-
tallurgy of this area is an overwhelming preference for shaping metal by working i t , a
prrference so pronounced that three-dimensional forms were usually made by joining
pieces ofmetal sheet rather than by casting thcm solid or hollow (Lechtman 1979, 1987).
Lost-wax casting was extremely rare.
l h e earliest metals in this Andean area were copper and gold, first in evidence from
about 1500 to 200 B.C. and used for status objects. Copper-silver and copper-arsenic
alloys appeared later, initially in northern Peru between about A.D. 200 and 800 (Izcht-
man 1980; Shimada 1985). The copper-silver alloy is found in southern Peru by at least
A.D. 1000 (Kroeber and Strong 1924; Root 1949). Copper-tin bronze first appeared in
the tin-rich highlands of Bolivia, southern Peru, and northwest Argentina. 1ts use became
widespread there (Gonzalez 1979) and in southern Peru by around A.D. 850 (Ixchtman
1980). Bronze with a low tin content was used for implements such as tweezers, axes, and
needles, for agricultural tools such as hoes (Gordon 1985; Mathewson 1915; Nordcn-
skiiild 1921; Rutledge and Gordon 1987), and also for symbols of state. The alloy was
restricted to the southern Andes until the Inka expansion, when objects made from tin-
bronze began to appear as far north as Ecuador (Lechtman 1980).
The metallurgy of southern Ecuador resembles that of northern Peru with respect to
the range of alloys utilized and manufacturing techniques. Copper-silver’ and copper-
arsenic (Escalera Urefia and Barriuso Perez 1978) alloys predominated. They were used
for utilitarian implements such as needles, axes, and hoes, as well as for status objects.
Lower Central America and Colombia gave rise to a markedly different metallurgical
tradition. I t is distinguished by the nearly exclusive use of gold or gold-copper alloys for
status objects such as masks, containers, personal adornments, and figurines, and by a
marked cultural preference for casting metal to shape, using the lost-wax technique al-
most exclusively and other casting methods on occasion. Lost-wax casting was known in
Colombia by the beginning of the Christian era and became widespread within thc Cal-
ima and Quimbaya cultures (see Figure l ) between the third and the tenth centuries
(Plazas and Falchetti 1986). The technique was equally important in central Panama as
early as between A.D. 200 and 500 (Bray 1981).
The Origins of West Mexican Metallurgy: Phase 1 (A.D. 800 to A.D. 1200-1300)
All primary characteristics marking this early period of West Mexican metallurgy-
major artifact types, metals and alloys, and fabrication techniques-derive from the two
metallurgical culture areas just described. None developed autochthonously. The resem-
blance with the metallurgy of southern Ecuador is most striking. In West Mexico during
this time, bells, needles, open rings, and depilatory tweezers, as well as axes, awls, and
occasional fishhooks constitute the basic constellation of objects made from metal. In
southern Ecuador during and prior to this period, metal was used to fabricate this same
invenlory of objects that exhibit the same design characteristics and the same fabrication l e ~ h n i q u e s . ~
Metal was also used in Ecuador for some artifact types that d o not appear in Wcst Mex-
ico, an issue that will be discussed subsequently.
For example, open circular rings (Figure 2) made from copper are one of the most
common artifact types in ancient West Mexico during this first phase. Such objects, made
from copper, copper-silver alloys (Levoy 1984), or gilt copper are nearly as prevalent in
coastal Ecuador (Figure 2). There, they first appear near A y a h (see Figure 1) and date
prior to A.D. 500 (Levoy 1984; Ubelaker 1983); they also appear later (one context dates
to A.D. 750) in the same area (Ubelaker 1981).
In both West Mexico and Ecuador, the methods used to fashion these rings were iden-
tical (Figure 3 ) . First, a rectangular strip of metal was hammered around its longitudinal

b
Figure 2
Open rings from (a) West Mexico (Collections of the Museo Regional de Guadalajara,
Guadalajara,Jalisco, Mexico) and from (b)Ecuador (Collections of the Museo AntropoM-
gico del Banco Central, Guayaquil, Ecuador).
 a b

Figure 3
Longitudinal section through (a) West Mexican open ring (Mag.:39; etchant: potassium di-
chromate) and (b) an open ring from Ecuador (Mag.:78;etchant: potassium dichromate).

axis to achieve a cylindrical rod-like form. The rod was then bent into a ring and under-
went a final anneal, as indicated by the elongated inclusions and annealing twins in Fig-
ure 3.
What is more, West Mexican and Ecuadorian open rings have been found in similar
archeological contexts. They often occur in burials associated with thr cranium of the
skeleton; in Mexico they sometimes held a hair band (Hosler 1986, 1988), or served as a
nose- or earring, and in Ecuador they apparently had similar functions. In West Mexico
these rings are common in burials at the Infiernillo sites on the Michoacan-Guerrero bor-
der, and at Tomatlin in Jalisco (see Figure 1 ) ; in Ecuador they occur in burials at sites
such as A y a h , in the southern coastal region (Hosler 1986).
Sewing needles are another artifact type that links the early phase of West Mexican
metallurgy with the coast of Ecuador. West Mexican smiths fashioned several kinds of
needles, distinguished by the form of the needle eye. The eye that apprars in this early
period (Figure 4) was made by punching or otherwise perforating the metal (Hosler 1986,
1988). West Mexican needles of this type that have been chemically analyzed are made
of copper (Hosler 1986). This same needle eye type occurs in the central Andean high-
lands of Peru, and also in what Holm (1963) refers to as an “enclave” on the Manabi
coast of Ecuador, and it predates the West Mexican examples. In Ecuador, these needles
(Figure 4) first appear in the Guangala period ofthc Regional Developmental period (500
B.C.-A.D. 500) and become very common during thc subsequent Mantetio period (A.D.
500-1500) (Holm 1963). Few have been chemically analyzed, but thosr that have been
are made from copper.
 190, 1988

Figure 4
Perforated eye needle from (a) West Mexico (Collections of the Museo Regional de Guad-
alajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) and (b) Ecuador (Collections of the Museo Antro-
pol6gico del Banco Central, Guayaquil, Ecuador).

The West Mexican and Ecuadorian needles were made in precisely the same way. The
solid cylindrical shaft of each was formed by hammering a rectangular strip of metal
around its longitudinal axis. The groove for the eye was fashioned by first flattening, then
hammering up the opposite sides of one end of the shaft and then punching or drilling a
hole in the groove to provide the eye (Figure 5).
In addition to the rings and needles, depilatory twcezers were also abundant in both
West Mexico and coastal Ecuador. The West Mexican form that appears in the early
phase has blades that are flat in profile view, a geometry known in mechanical engineer-
ing parlance as a beam. The West Mexican beam tweezers (Figure 6a) were consistently
made from copper (Hosler 1986) and occur earliest at Amapa (Meighan 1976) and To-
m a t h (Mountjoy and Torres 1985; Mountjoy, personal communication, 1986). The Ec-
uadorian tweezers are also typically of the beam design (Figure 6b), closely resembling
their West Mexican counterparts (Hosler 1986) and predating the West Mexican ex-
amples. In addition, they were made in the same way as those from West Mexico. In both
regions these tweezers were cold worked to shape from an original cast blank and were
left either in the cold-worked condition or subsequently annealed (Hosler 1986). Thus
far all Ecuadorian tweezers that figured in the study reported here are made from copper.
In Ecuador, tweezers are found most frequently on the south coast, often in Milagro buri-
als (A.D. 500-1500) (Olaf Holm, personal communication, 1983). They are also present
in the preceding Guangala period (500 B.C.-A.D. 500).
Tweezers were apparently used in both regions for removing beard hairs, a widespread
practice throughout aboriginal America. T o test the performance of West Mexican
tweezers under normal conditions of use, computer simulation studies were undertaken
(Hosler 1986, 1988), using data on tweezer dimensions and composition derived from
laboratory analysis of the artifacts. The simulation tests showed that these twcezers were
fully functional depilatory tools when made from copper as long as certain Icngth-to-
Hosler] ANCIENTWEST k f E X / C A N M E T A I L U R ~ ~ Y 839

a b

Figure 5
Transverse section through needle eye from (a) West Mexico (Mag.:32;etchant: potassium
dichromate-note elongated grains resulting from extensive cold work, and parallel sides
of eye hole cut by punch or drill); (b) Ecuador (Mag.:34, as polished). Eyehole of the Ec-
uadorian section is filled with corrosion product.

thickness ratios were maintained. Those ratios are typical not only of the Period 1 West
Mexican tweezers but also of the Ecuadorian beam tweezers, indicating that Ecuadorian
tweezers were also functional implements.
Fishhooks made from copper or its alloys appear in Ecuador in the Guangala phase
(500 B.C.-A.D. 500), predating their West Mexican counterparts.
Bells, made by the lost-wax casting process, are another important artifact type that
appear in West Mexico in the early phase ofthe technology (Hosler 1986, 1988). All West
Mexican bells are suspended by a ring, and most enclose a loose clapper. West Mexican
metalsmiths fashioned a large number ofdistinct formal types and subtypes of bells (Hos-
Ier 1986, 1988). Those that appear in this early period are made from copper, and most
have smooth rather than wirework walls (Figure 7). In coastal Ecuador bells also c ~ n -
stitute one of the most common artifacts made from metal, but they were fashioned by
working the metal (Hosler 1983) rather than by casting it. However, West Mexican bells
are strikingly similar to bells made in Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Like the West
Mexican varieties, these lower Central American and Colombian bells were made by lost-
wax casting; they were outfitted with a suspension ring and contained a clapper (Figure
8). Their surfaces are smooth, and the vast majority are made from copper-gold alloys.
In Colombia, estimated dates for the earliest appearance of lost-wax-cast bells fall be-
tween A.D. 200 and 500 (C. Plazas, personal communication, 1986). They were present
in Panama and Costa Rica by A.D. 500. These bells strongly resemble types that appear
in the early period in West Mexico, particularly types la, Ic( I ) , and 11b illustrated in
Figure 7 (Hosler 1986, 1988). Although the dates for these Colombian bells and lower
Central American bells are p r ~ b l e m a t i cthere
, ~ is no doubt that lost-wax-cast bells gen-
erally similar to the West Mexican Period 1 designs are far earlier in Colombia, Panama,
and Costa Rica.
Discussion
The earliest period of West Mexican metallurgy thus contains elements that derive
from two external metallurgical traditions. The lower Central American and Colombian
840 190, 1988

a b

Figure 6
Beam tweezers, side view, from (a) West Mexico (Collections of Museo Regional de Guad-
alajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) and (b)Ecuador (Collections of Museo Antropol6-
gico del Banco Central, Guayaquil, Ecuador).

d d
la lc I1 I 5b llb
Figure 7
Period 1 West Mexican copper bells: Types la, l c ( l ) , 5b, l l b .

preference for shaping metal by casting is visible in the early appcarancc in West Mexico
of lost-wax-cast bells similar in form to bells from those regions. At the same time, the
Ecuadorian and Peruvian preference for shaping metal by working characterizes a sub-
stantial proportion of West Mexican artifacts from the early period, and those artifact
types-perforated eye needles, tweezers, open rings, and others (see Hoslcr 1986 for ex-
amples)-are identical in design and in metals and alloys used to those in Ecuador. Mi-
nor differences in design between West Mexican and Ecuadorian objects often can be
HoslerJ 84I

Figure 8
Lost-wax-cast bell: Costa Rica. Keith Collection, American Museum of Natural History.

used to differentiate them. Nonetheless, a small proportion of the artifacts, like a tweezer
and several other objects from TomatlLn (Hosler 1986:557), may be actual imports.
The most remarkable and significant aspect of these findings is that the majority of the
early period artifact types found in West Mexico appear elsewhere in the Americas, and
their particular design characteristics, fabrication techniques, and frequently materials
are identical with those from these other areas. Each of the technical characteristics of
West Mexican metallurgy not only appears earlier elsewhere but is associated in West
Mexico with the same technical elements with which it is found in lower Central America,
Colombia, or Ecuador. In some cases (such as the open rings and the tweezers) archeo-
logical context-and presumably social function-arc also identical; the same is likely
true of the other artifact types.
Transmission of the Technology
How were elements from these two metallurgical culture areas transmittcd to West
Mexico? Scholars have frequently called attention to cultural relations bctwcen West
Mexico and Ecuador (Green and Lowe 1967; Kelly 1980; Kirchoff 1948; Meighan 1969;
Mountjoy 1969; Paulsen 1977; Tolstoy and Paradis 1970; and others) on the basis ofsim-
ilarities in ceramics-vessel forms, figurine styles, design motifs-in metal artifact types,
and in other categories of material culture. Most agree that these similarities resulted
from maritime contacts between these geographic areas, since the traits in question arc
distributed discontinuously.
Recent insights into Andean prehistory have bcgun to provide the information neces-
sary to substantiate the existence of at least one link in this maritime network and to
reliably infer some of the items that were exchanged. These studies indicate that the rich
resources of the Andean region were managed in part through a system of maritime com-
merce that articulated with the better documented land-based system of vertical or ar-
chipelago organization (Murra 1972). Various investigators (Holm 1953; Murra 1982)
have argued on the basis of ethnohistoric documents and archeological data that a mar-
itime exchange system based in Ecuador, which specialized in acquisition and exchange
of spondylus shell, functioned along the Ecuadorian and Peruvian coasts. The presence
of spondylus in highland Andean sites as early as the Chavin horizon (Marcos and Nor-
ton 1981) suggests that some segmcnts ofthe network must have been in place very early.
Some scholars argue that this maritime system may have extended as far north as West
Mexico (Paulscn 1977; Marcos 1978). Paulsen in fact has described the Pacific littoral as
a series of related overlapping economic pockets integrated by such a network.
‘This system of maritime commerce may have been managed by the Mantetio (A.D.
500-1500), a powerful chiefdom on the Manabi coast of Ecuador. T h c Mantciio werr
known as sailors and possessed sophisticated watercraft technology-large sea-going
balsa wood rafts or canoes with sails. A reconstruction of this sailing technology from
ethnohistoric sources showed that these rafts and sailing canoes were capable of long-
distance maritime expeditions; they were adequate to undertake either nonstop voyaging
in the open sea or coastwise trading voyages (Edwards 1969).
The existence o f a more southerly arm of the Andean maritime route has come to light
with the publication (Rostworowski 1970) o f a mid-16th century ethnohistoric document
that deals with Chincha, a large and wealthy kingdom on the south central coast of Peru,
which flourished during the Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 1000-1476) and contin-
ued as a major economic force into the Late Horizon (A.D. 1476-1534). T h e document
indicates that Chincha was a port in which 6,000 merchants resided who rngagcd full
time in long-distance maritime commerce using fleets of balsa rafts. T h e goods were des-
tined for the Gulf of Guayaquil, and some moved as far north as Portoviejo (Figure l ) ,
near the Mantciio capital of Manta on the central Ecuadorian coast. We can quite rea-
sonably assume that mullu, or spondylus shell, was imported to Chincha from Ecuador.
Rostworowski’s ( 1970) interpretation of the document claims that, in exchange, the Ec-
uadorians received copper for the spondylus, which the merchants obtained from the
southern Andean highlands. Specific mention is made ofChincha merchants buying and
selling in copper, apparently using copper as a kind of value for exchange. Chincha
emerged as a powerful political entity at approximately A.D. 1000 and was allowed to
survive by the Inka because of its key position in this maritime commercial system.
Spondylus shell acquired from Ecuador was sacred in the Andean region and appar-
ently elsewhere in the Americas also. T h e shell was particularly important in the Andean
highlands, where it was used in huge quantities for rainmaking ceremonies (Murra 1982)
and other ritual purposes. Because spondylus requires a warm water habitat, it cannot
survive in the waters off the coast of Peru, which arc governed by the extremely cold
Humboldt current. It thrives, howcvcr, in the warm tropical waters from the GulfofGu-
ayaquil north to the Gulf of Mexico. Spondylus beds are distributed in pockets through-
o u t this zone (Marcos 1978). T h e cultural importance of the shell made the acquisition,
processing, and exchange of spondylus a major economic activity in the Andcan region.
Apart from copper, which may have been exchanged by the Chincha traders for Ec-
uadorian spondylus, what other evidence exists that mctal objects were among the goods
moved from Peru and Ecuador north in exchange for the shell? T h e oft-cited description
of the native Andean sailing raft (Rostworowski 1970) that Bartolomi. Ruiz encountered
on his 1526 exploratory trip along the coast of Ecuador provides such evidence. T h e raft
carried 20 men and was filled with goods to trade for spondylus. Among them were ob-
jects made from silver, such as crowns, tiaras, tweezers, bells, and bands.
A 1525 document from Zacatula, near the mouth ofthc Balsas River in West Mexico,
describes what may well have been an Ecuadorian trading expedition there. It relates
that the Indians in that region told the Spaniards that their grandfathers and fathers had
traded with mariners bringing rich cargoes from the south in canoes, and thrse traders
sometimes spent five to six months in West Mexican ports (West 1961).
Th e presence of Ecuadorian elements in the first phase of West Mexican metallurgy
can be plausibly explained by the existence of this maritime exchange system. T h e ap-
pearance in West Mexico of lost-wax-east objects, howevcr, required contact with regions
of lower Central America and Colombia where such objects were manufactured. Paulsen
(1977) notes that a voyage northward from Ecuador to Colombia could be made via in-
land waterways, and that the 500-mile stretch from Buenavcntura, Colombia, to Costa
Hoslerl A N C I E N TWEST M E X I C A N M~:TALI.['R(;Y 843

Rica could be negotiated in a seagoing sailing raft in several days. However accom-
plished, Colombia and the western coast ofcosta Riea constituted logical ports ofcall in
the voyage north.
We do not know what goods Ecuadorian traders may have initially sought in West
Mexico, nor when the maritime trading network may have first begun to link these
coastal zones, although ceramic data indicate that it may have been as early as 1500 B.C.
(Kelly 1980). The acquisition of spondylus may explain the Ecuadorian interest in West
Mexico. Marcos (1978) mentions that spondylus beds exist off the West Mexican coast
of Sinaloa for example, and that the shell was a tribute item to the Aztecs from Colima.
Spondylus was also important at Teotihuacin as a ritual item as early as A.D. 200 (Mar-
cos 1978). Mountjoy (1969) believes that a South American intrrest in peyote may have
given rise to these long-distancr contacts. In either case it is the existence of such an
extensive maritime system that thus far furnishes the best evidence for the ways in which
technical components of Central and South American metallurgies were introduced into
West Mexico.
In reconstructing the events, it is probable that the first metal objects that appeared in
West Mexico were trade goods, manufactured in the Andean zone, lower Central Amer-
ica, and Colombia. The artifact types found in coastal Ecuador and in West Mexico made
by working-tweezers, needles, open rings, and probably axes and awls (Hosler 1986)-
were introduced from Ecuador and served as prototypes for objects that were subse-
quently manufactured locally. For although the earliest phase of West Mexican metal-
lurgy shows startlingly close ties with the metallurgical technology of coastal Ecuador,
the West Mexican objects are not exact replicas of their Ecuadorian counterparts. It
seems clear that, for the most part, it is knowledge-not objects-that was imported,
knowledge of smelting technologies, of mineral and ore types, of fabrication techniques,
and of the kinds of objects that could be made from metal, which were, of course, those
very objects that were produced in Ecuador and Colombia. Lost-wax casting could have
been learned by West Mexicans in a variety of ways, such as from reports of Ecuadorian
traders who had witnessed the technique in Central America or Colombia, or from Cen-
tral American smiths who accompanied the voyages. Lost-wax casting may have been
introduced overland from Central America, but because dates for lost-wax-cast objects
in the intervening area, Oaxaca and Guatemala, are thus far significantly later than in
West Mexico, a maritime introduction to West Mexico best fits the available evidence.
Origins of Phase 2: A.D. 1200-1300 to A.D. 1525
During a second and subsequent period, the basic technical repertoire that defined
West Mexican metallurgy expanded dramatically. Most far-reaching was the change
from the almost exclusive use of copper in Period 1 to the extensive use of alloys in Period
2. West Mexican smiths began to use alloys of copper and silver, the two bronze alloys-
copper-tin and copper-arsenic-and a copper-arsenic-tin ternary alloy. New artifact de-
signs appeared that were subtypes of the earlier types and whose form and function re-
quired the mechanical properties conferred by the alloys (Hosler 1986, 1988). Among
such designs are tweezers made from extremely thin metal with blades of double curva-
ture, dome- or shell-like in form (referred to hereafter as shell tweezers); thin, open rings
of rectangular cross-section; thin-walled, intricately crafted wirework bells; and needles
fashioned with an eye made with a loop rather than by perforation (Hosler 1988). A few
new artifact types appeared at this time as well, including copper-silver sheet ornaments,
lost-wax-cast ornaments, and axe monies.
Some facets of this technological expansion derived from elements newly introduced
from the same metallurgical culture areas that sparked developments during the first
phase of the technology in West Mexico. Others reveal contacts with a new region: south-
ern Peru and the adjacent Bolivian highlands. Still others reflect a transformation of the
entire complex of technological elements into the unique configuration that gave West
Mexican metallurgy its distinctive stamp.
 (90, 1988

Phase 2: South and Central American Elements

Many of the new artifact types that appear in West Mexico at this time share design
characteristics, fabrication techniques, and alloy systems with objects identical in form
from Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru. These artifact types were introduced to
West Mexico via the Ecuador-based maritime network that had been instrumental in
transmitting elements of the technology during the earlier period. T h e southern Peruvian
elements, however, were likely introduced through the newly established maritime or-
ganization centered at Chincha, which emerged as an important commercial and politi-
cal entity at this time. They then moved north, into the Ecuadorian network to West
Mexico.
One of the most striking artifact subtypes new to West Mexico at this time was the
esthetically and technically impressive shell tweezer design. The blades of thcsc tweezers
have a pronounced dome-like double curvature and the blade metal is extremely thin.
The computer simulation studies mentioned earlier showed that the improved mechan-
ical properties ofalloys were technically essential to cxccute this design and for the tweez-
ers to function (Hosler 1986, 1988). In West Mexico, where four variants of the basic
design occur (Figure 9), these tweezers were made from copper-tin and copper-arsenic
bronze, and from copper-silver alloys. Three of the four designs are also found in Colom-
bia, Ecuador, or Peru, where they were similarly made from an alloy (usually copper-
gold or copper-silver), a requirement of the design. T h e latter are illustratcd in Figure
10: examples of West Mexican type 2a (dated from A.D. 1300-1400) and type 2b (dated
A.D. 1000-1400) were excavated a t Chincha (Kroeber and Strong 1924). Type 2a is also
found at other coastal Peruvian sites such as Chancay, Chuquitanta (Baessler 1906: Tafel
16, 17), and Ancon (Reiss and Stiibel 1880-87:3:Plate 81). Type 2d, with a pronounced
semilunar blade, frequently occurs in Colombia, where such tweezers are made from a
gold-copper alloy.
A new needle design appeared in West Mexico for the first time during the second
phase of the technology. The eyes of these needles are made in the form of a loop. Two
subtypes have been found in West Mexico (Figure 11); type 2a is abundant, type 2b rare.
Both appear in Ecuador and Peru. Type 2a also appears in northwest Argentina. They

2a 2b 2c 2d

Figure 9
Shell design tweezers, West Mexico: Types 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d.
Hosler] ANCIENT
WESTMEXICAN
METALLURCY 845

a b C

Figure 10
Shell design tweezers from South America: (a) West Mexican type 2a from Chincha, Peru,
and other Peruvian sites (Kroeber and Strong 1924:40, Figure 22); (b) West Mexican type
2b from Chincha, Peru (Kroeber and Strong 1924:40, Figure 22); and (c) West Mexican type
2d from Colombia (Bray 1978:128, Figure 16).

2a 2b

Figure 11
West Mexican loop-eye needles, types 2a and 2b.

date to about A.D. 1000 on the north coast of Peru and, in northwest Argentina, to before
A.D. 650 (Gonzilez 1979). My technical studies have shown that the West Mexican
needles and their Ecuadorian and Peruvian counterparts were fashioned in precisely the
same way; in the case of type 2a, by doubling over a tab of metal extending from one end
of the needle shaft, then tucking it back into the shaft to form the eye (Figure 12). These
846

Figure 12
Transverse section through eye of a West Mexican type 2a loop-eye needle (Mag.:50;etch-
ant: potassium dichromate).Note tab of loop enclosed by shaft.

studies also showed that the properties (particularly strength) of the bronzc alloys used
in their manufacture optimized the loop eyc design. In West Mexico type 2a needles are
made most consistently from copper-arsenic bronze, but occasionally from copper-tin. In
northern Peru and Ecuador their counterparts are made from coppcr-arsenic alloys
(Lechtman 1981), in southern Peru from alloys ofcopper and tin (Nordenskiold 1921).(’
Dates and alloy compositions for type 2b Ecuadorian/northern Peruvian needles are thus
far unavailable.
The other two artifact types that appear in the second phase of West Mexican metal-
lurgy, particularly significant for relations between Wrst Mexico and the Andean region,
are axe monies and sheet metal ornaments, the latter madr of copper-silver alloys. Axe
monies are thin sheet metal objects ofa general axe-like shape that have been cold worked
to shape. They are known from northern Peru, the coast of Ecuador, and Mexico (Easby,
Caley, and Moazed 1967; Morse and Gordon 1986; Holm 1966-67; Shimada 1985). In
Mexico they are reported from Michoacin and Guerrero in the west and from Oaxaca in
the south. Sevrral Mexican types have been identified (Hosler 1986:321); some are paprr
thin (Figure 13) and could never have served as tools (Hoslcr 1986). Most of the paper-
thin variety are made from copper-arsenic alloys, with the alloying clement present in
low concentrations (Hosler 1986). The usr of the alloy is preferable, if not imperative,
given the extreme thinness of the metal. Ethnohistoric sources (Hoslcr 1986) suggest that
these objects were used as a standard of valur; standardization in dimrnsions and alloy
composition support that idea (Hosler 1986).
Similar extremely thin objects, axc-likc in form, were common on the central and
southern coasts of Ecuador by A.D. 800-900 (Holm 1966-67). They arc often found
bound in packets and buried in very large numbers. Laboratory studies carried out at
M I T on Ecuadorian axe monies show that thry, like their West Mexican counterparts,
were cold worked to shape and that the large majority of Ecuadorian axe monies are made
from low-arsenic copper-arsenic alloys (Heather Lcchtman, personal communication,
1985).
Hosler] 847

Figure 13
West Mexican axe money. Collections of the Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Guadalajara,
Jalisco, Mexico.

The copper-silver sheet metal ornaments found in West Mexico have precise counter-
parts on the Ecuadorian coast as well (Hosler 1986).Sheet metal discs and similar objects
are abundant in Ecuador and northern Peru. As noted previously, the alloy appears very
early in that general area. Some West Mexican copper-silver sheet metal objects are vir-
tually identical to those in Ecuador with respect to dimensions, fabrication techniques,
and materials.
Discussion
Certain key components of the second period of West Mcxican mctallurgy, like the
first, derive from distinct regions in South America. The most direct connections occur
with coastal Ecuador, where, in sevcral cases, all elements comprising the tcchnological
complex arc identical in both regions: design types, alloy types, and fabrication tech-
niques. The two most striking cases are found in the use of copper-silver alloys in both
regions for sheet metal ornaments and in the abundant use in West Mexico of copper-
arsenic alloys for two common types of Ecuadorian and Pcruvian artifacts: axe monies,
which are similar in concept, design, and alloy composition to their Ecuadorian counter-
parts, and loop-eye needles.
We know that objects made from copper-silver and copper-arsenic alloys were being
fashioned in northern Peru and in Ecuador as early as A.D. 200 to 600. Some of these
artifacts, as well as knowledge of materials and techniques, could easily havc been trans-
mitted to West Mrxico via maritime traffic. In fact, the sailing raft obscrved by Barto-
lomd Ruiz carried many silver objects on board which could have included silver-colorcd
objects made of copper-silver alloys.
The most remarkable finding concerning this second period of West Mexican metal-
lurgy is the evidence that links West Mexico to regions even further to thr south-to the
south coast of Peru and to the adjacent Andean highlands. T h e appearance of certain
artifact designs and a new alloy system-copper-tin bronze-in West Mexico provides
the best examples of such contacts. Certain West Mexican shell tweezers, for example,
are exact replicas of tweezers found only in southern Peru and are absent in the interven-
ing area. Other artifact types, such as the copper-tin bronze loop-eye needles, are not only
identical in both regions in fabrication technique but are made from the same material.
In West Mexico some of these needles are also made from copper-tin bronze (Hosler
1986).
The knowledge of this copper-tin bronze alloy was likely introduced to West Mexico
from the southern Andes. The alloy constituted the most important contribution from the
metallurgy of that region to that of West Mexico, where tin bronze became a vital com-
ponent of the technology. In a few cases (such as some loop-eye needles) the artifact types
made from tin bronze in West Mexico were the same types made from that alloy in the
southern Andes. In general, howrver, West Mexican smiths used copper-tin bronze for
objects that were significant in their local symbolic system. One of the most important of
these is wirework bells (Figure 14), whose thin-walled design required the properties of
such an alloy. Furthermore, these brlls often contained tin in such high concrntrations
that the color of the metal became golden.
The existence of the maritime exchange organization centered at Chincha plausibly
explains how artifacts such as the shell tweezers, as well as knowledge of the copper-tin
bronze alloy, could have been transmitted to West Mexico. The time ascribed for the
emergence ofChincha as an important economic power, after about A.D. 1000,coincides
with the beginning of the second period of West Mexican metallurgy, when the technical
elements discussed above first appear. I t is likely that they were introduccd from coastal
Peru directly through the Chincha trading organization, especially in view of information
about the exchange of copper metal from the southern highlands for spondylus. Copper
artifacts, or copper-alloy artifacts, could havr been exchanged also. In fact, thr similar-
ities in metal artifact designs, compositions, and fabrication techniques between West

Figure 14
West Mexican wirework bell. Collections of the Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Guada-
lajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Hosler] ANCIENTWKST MEXI(:.lh' MET.4I.I.l'RCI 849

Mexico and southern Peru demonstrated here may attest to the occasional importation
of such finished artifact^.^
Although the distances are great, Peruvian objects, including shell tweezers, were
probably transshipped by Ecuadorian traders to the north-together with axe monies,
copper-silver sheet artifacts, loop-eye needles, and so forth-through Colombian, Costa
Rican, and eventually West Mexican ports. The shell tweezer design from Colombia,
distinguished by its highly curved similunar blade, may well havr been a trade item ac-
quired along the way. These objects were then copied in West Mexico using locally avail-
able materials.
It should be made quite clear that in referring to the movement ofcertain goods (metal
artifacts) and technological know-how (knowledge and techniques) I am not suggesting
that West Mexicans received shipment ofarsenic bronzr from northern Peru or tin bronze
from southern Peru and Bolivia. My studies of the ore geology of West Mexico as well as
my analyses of more than 400 prehistoric artifacts from the area (Hosler 1986) make it
abundantly evident that West Mexico then, as now, was endowcd with and fully ex-
ploited the rich copper, copper-arsenic, and copper-silver resources at its disposal, and
that tin was obtained from the tin mineral deposits (cassitrrite) in the north central region
of the country. The ores that fueled West Mexican metallurgy were on hand and were
seriously utilized.

Conclusions
The metallurgical technology that emerged in West Mexico incorporated many specif-
ic elements of Ecuadorian and Peruvian as well as lower Central American and Colom-
bian technologies. As I havc shown, fundamental similarities exist in the purpose to
which metal was put in all three mrtallurgical areas: for objects that communicated sta-
tus, power, and hierarchy. 'The kinds ofobjects prople made from metal, the metals and
alloys cmployed to make them, and the fabrication techniques, show other, undeniable,
similarities. Yet important structural and conceptual differences exist between West
Mexican metallurgy and the metallurgies of the regions from which major technical com-
ponents were introduced. The configuration of the technology, especially during the sec-
ond phase, resembles that of neither of the two "parent" regions; rather, it reveals local
adaptations that restructured the technology in accordance with West Mexican cultural
premises about the nature and proper use of the new material.
Some of those premises, to be sure, such as the intense interest in the colors of mctal,
were South and Central American in origin. 'The colors sought by South and Central
American metalsmiths were gold and silver, identified with the sun and moon deities, the
same colors that were central to West Mexicans (Hosler 1986, 1987) for the same cultural
purposes. The interest in these colors, and the association of gold and silver metal with
the sun and moon, were clearly metallurgical preoccupations that had become pan-
American in scope. Most symbolically and ritually important Ecuadorian and Peruvian
artifacts were made from sheet metal, whose golden and silvery surfaces were achieved
through either direct use of gold and silver or through enrichment techniques that pro-
duced silvery and golden surfaces on artifacts made from copper-silver and copper-gold
alloys (Lechtman 1979, 1980). In lower Central America and Colombia color was
achieved principally through the use of alloys of copper and gold (tumbaga).
The people of West Mexico expressed the broader cultural theme by transforming the
bronze alloys, which we usually associate with tools and implements, into elite materials.
Many of the culturally most significant artifacts-bells, tweezers, and rings-required,
to achieve the design, the use of an alloy for its strength or othrr properties. What is
striking about these objects is that they were made consistently of bronze, in which the
alloying metal, tin or arsenic, was introduced in concentrations far higher than those re-
quired to execute the design, in an engineering sense. In the case of the bells, tin and
arsenic concentrations in some cases reached as high as 23 weight percent of the alloy
content, whereas 5-10% would have sufficed to produce a fluid metal that would pour
easily, fill the mold, and capture fine detail Faithfully. The effect of adding arsenic or tin
in such extraordinarily high proportions was to color the metal brilliantly silver or gold.
Arsenic alloyed in high concentrations with copper produces a silver metal; similarly, tin
in high concentrations colors copper golden. T h e shell design tweezers, which became
central cultural symbols at Tzintzuntzan among the Tarascans (Figure 9), contained tin
in concentrations up to 12 weight percent, producing a warm golden color; tin concen-
trations in the open rings often exceeded 10 weight percent, likewise coloring the metal
golden (Hosler 1986). In the Americas, the idea that copper-tin and copper-arsenic
bronze can be used to achieve golden and silvery colors was unique to West Mexico” and
derives from a purely West Mexican interpretation of those alloys. Gold and silver metals
and copper-silver alloys were also sometimes used for color in West Mexico as in the
Andes, but the copper-gold alloys (tumbaga), a hallmark ofSouth and Central American
metallurgies, were rare.
Other cultural premises that structured West Mexican metallurgy were likewise West
Mexican in origin, but at the same time represented permutations of the pan-American
view that metal was primarily an elite material. In West Mexico, unlike other areas of
the New World, resonant properties of metal became centrally important. Bells prolif-
erated, and were by far the most numerous kind ofartifact made from metal. Metal, bells,
and “good sounds”-culturally desirable sounds-were synonymous, described by a sin-
gle term. In Nahuat that term also means “a sound like a man who speaks well” (Hosler
1986); that is, a respected man, a man with admirable qualities. In West Mexico status
and power were not only communicated visually through color, but aurally also, through
the sounds of bells. They were sounded in instruments known as rattlesticks at religious
events, and worn in ceremonial dances (Hosler 1987). And although bells were common
in Ecuador, Ecuadorian bells, which were worked to shape, cannot compare to those
made in West Mexico, either in formal variety, variation in pitch, relative abundance, or
technical virtuosity. ‘The West Mexican choice of the lower Central American and Co-
lombian technique for bell manufacture-lost-wax casting-rather than the Ecuadorian,
Peruvian and south Andean method of working was highly appropriate for a culture in-
terested in sound. Lost-wax casting facilitates production of the distinct shapes and sizes
required for the tonal variety that interested West Mexican smiths, characteristics that
are far more difficult if not impossible to achieve when shaping a bell through working
the metal.
The use of metal for status purposes was thus one of the primary concepts shared by
the metallurgies of West Mexico, Central America, and South America. However the
particular constellation of artifacts that became the focus of the technology in West Mex-
ico-bells, open rings, tweezers, and so forth-were nol major components of the elite
spheres of Central or South American metallurgies, although such objects were relatively
abundant, especially in Ecuador. In Central and South America it was elaborate masks,
crowns, nose-rings and earrings, vessels, decorative lopus, figurines, and lip ornaments
that carried particular symbolic weight. Only in the use of copper-silver alloys for sheet
metal ornaments do the elite components of these technologies coincidc.
The relative size and importance of the utilitarian spheres of the technologies differed
among these regions as well. ‘The use of metal, in particular the bronze alloys, for tools
and implements was a vital and significant component of Ecuadorian, Peruvian, and
south Andean metallurgy. In West Mexico, by contrast, not only were these utilitarian
alloys used for status objects, but the proportion oftools and implements made from them
was relatively small. Lower Central America and Colombia lacked the raw materials for
such a bronze tool technology.
The use of metal, including bronze, in West Mexico almost exclusively for objects that
served elite interests is highly unusual, when mineral resources existed in abundance that
could have supported a technology meeting quite different cultural objectives. I will ar-
gue that both the constellation ofobjects that were defincd as elite and the overall elite
focus were a consequence of the time that the technology appeared and the circumstances
surrounding its introduction. Metal was virtually unknown in West Mexico until A D .
800. The appearance of the new material occurred at a time when primary technologies
based on stone, ceramics, bone, and other materials had been in place for many hundreds
of years, all of them developed to manage the varied ecological zones that characterize
the West Mexican region and to meet the exigencies of social life. T h e existence of those
technologies implies the existence of an entire social apparatus that organized, inter-
preted, and perpetuated them. Thus while the properties of metal are redundant with but
for particular purposes superior to the properties of such materials, this entrenched social
apparatus mitigated against large-scale substitution of metal tools, implements, and
weapons for objects made from those materials.
At the same time it was presumably the West Mexican elites who initially gained access
to metal: to the knowledge and skills required to exploit and use it and to the imported
artifacts. Restricted access to metal coupled with the inherent complexity of the tcchnol-
o,gy and the concomitant requirements for specialists encouraged elite control Of CXtrdC-
tion and production. However, metal objects fashioned for status purposes did not rep-
licate in metal similar objects made from other materials. Rather, metal was used for
objects that capitalized upon the unique propcrties of' the new material, its fluidity es-
pecially for the casting of bells to various shapes and dimensions, and its toughness and
malleability in fashioning tweezers and sheet metal artifacts.
The elite emphasis of the metallurgy also results from the ways metal was used in the
regions from which important components of the technology had been imported. Nonc-
theless, as this discussion has emphasized, the elite facets ofCentral and South American
metallurgies were rather different from that of West Mexico. These differences are cspe-
cially noteworthy because West Mexico possessed the mineral resources and West Mex-
ican smiths the technical ingenuity necessary to have reproduced the complex surface
treatment systems for copper-gold, copper-silver, and other alloys devrloped exclusively
for elite and status goods; the dazzling Andean bimetallic sheet metal objects; and the
elaboratc lower Central American and Colombian lost-wax castings.
Yet these elements do not appear in West Mexico. It was the utilitarian alloys, coppcr-
arsenic and copper-tin, and artifacts pertaining to the more secular domain of the cultures
in which they originated that were introduced: bells, tweezers, needles, axe monies, but-
tons, fish hooks, rings, probably axes, and awls and the like (Hoslcr 1986).Some of these
objects, such as open rings and tweezers in Ecuador and Peru, and lost-wax-cast bells in
lower Central America and Colombia, were status items in those regions, but they do not
approach artifacts such as masks, elaboratc nose rings, and so forth in symbolic signifi-
cance.
'The elite sphere of West Mexican metallurgy-the use of bronze for status items, and
the primary cultural focus on objects such as bells, open rings, and tweezers-was cre-
ated by transforming and redefining secular aspects of South and Central American tech-
nologies. However, the overwhelming emphasis of West Mexican metallurgy on bells and
sound, and other particular cultural foci, such as the symbolic importance of twcezcrs,
arose from specific internal causes (Hosler 1986). Their roots nonetheless lay in the sec-
ular domains of the metallurgics to the south. T h e facets of Central and South American
metallurgies concerned with the most sacred realms of social life simply were not incor-
porated into the West Mexican experience. Given the availability of raw materials, the
failure to replicate the elite domain of the Andean or Central American technologies-in
fact the transformation of what was more secular in the regions of origin-is striking. T h e
West Mexican example suggests that in somc circumstances the facets of a technology
least likely to be transmitted to a new societal context are those that pertain to the most
sacred realm of experience. In the West Mexican case, while broadly shared concepts
about metal were transmitted, the particular artifacts that expressed them were not. Dif-
ferences in cosmology and religion and their constitutive material symbols may have been
suficiently great between West Mcxico and the regions to thc south that those symbols
852 A.UERI(:.iN ANTHROPOLOGIST (90, 1988

could not be easily integrated into the West Mexican material repertoire. Helms (1981),
Rathje (1972), and others present contrasting examples in thc ancient Americas in which
elite knowledge and symbols were exported and incorporated; however, ideological con-
gruence among those regions was undoubtedly greater, due to geographical proximity
and probably other factors.
The elements of Central and South American metallurgies that did appear in West
Mexico strongly support the idea that it was technical know-how and occasional artifacts,
transmitted through trade, that resulted in the introduction of the technology there. If
metallurgy had been introduced through conquest or migration, the ideological para-
phernalia-in the form of the elite and sacred items of material culture-would likely
have accompanied it. Perhaps one item exchanged for spondylus, if that was what was
sought in West Mexico, was technical expertise: knowledge of ore types, smelting tech-
nologies, and fabrication methods. Like the trading expedition observed by Columbus in
1502 (Bray 1977) near the Bay Islands of Honduras, Ecuadorian maritime expeditions
may have carried metalsmiths with them. It must have been during the five- t o six-month
layovers in West Mexican ports cited in the document translated by West (1961)-a
practice currently observed by Pacific sailors during the five- to six-month hurricane sea-
son-that these smiths imparted their knowledge of the technology to West Mexican ar-
tisans.

Notes
Acknowledgments. Support for this research was provided by NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improve-
ment grant BSN-25022, Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research grant 4149, and
a predoctoral fellowship a t the Massachusetts Institute of Technology awarded by Industrial Mi-
nera Mexico S.A. I would like to thank the members of the Consejo de Arqueologia, Instituto Na-
cional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, for permission to study and sample the collection upon
which the discussion of West Mexican metallurgy is based, and Arque6logo Otto Schondube and
Ingeniero Frederico Sol6rzano of I.N.A.H. a t the Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Guadalajara,
Jalisco, Mexico, for their help and encouragement. I also would like to thank Olaf Holm, Director,
Museo Antropol6gico del Banco Central, Guayaquil, Ecuador, for help with access to the museum
collections in Ecuador, and the curatorial staff a t the Museo de Oro, Bogota, Colombia, and the
American Museum of Natural History, New York, for permission to study their collections. Joseph
Mountjoy allowed me to examine and cite information from the assemblage of artifacts from To-
m a t h , Jalisco. I would also like to thank Professors Heather Lechtman (Anthropology/Archae-
ology and Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Barbara
Voorhies (Department of Anthropology, University of California a t Santa Barbara), and Gordon
Willey (Peabody Museum, Harvard University) for reading and commenting upon the first draft
of this article.
'The information about West Mexican metallurgy is based primarily on data gained from the
study of approximately 3,200 pre-Hispanic West Mexican metal artifacts housed in the Museo
Regional de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, from which 400 were selected for labora-
tory analyses (Hosler 1986). The chronology was developed on the basis of those data and appears
in Hosler (1986) and is synthesized in Hosler (1988).
'During both periods gold and probably gold alloys were also utilized; however, objects made
from these alloys comprise only a small fraction of those made in West Mexico and have not been
systematically studied.
'Observations regarding the metallurgy of Ecuador that appear here derive from unpublished
data from ongoing investigations of Ecuadorian metallurgy undertaken as part of a Convenio be-
tween the Banco Central del Ecuador and the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and
Ethnology at M I T to study Ecuadorian metallurgy. Artifacts found in the comprehensive collec-
tions of the Museo Antropol6gico del Banco Central del Ecuador in Guayaquil and in the Museo
Arqueol6gico del Banco Central in Quito have constituted primary study material thus far.
4The sole exception is bells, which were cold worked to shape in Ecuador and lost-wax-cast in
West Mexico.
'Colombian examples of Types la, Ic( I ) , and 1 1 b made from copper are found in the collections
of the Museo de Oro, Bogota. Type 1 Ib is found in the Diquis Delta region o f c o s t a Rica (Lothrop
Hosler] A.V(:lENT WEST MEX1t:AN META1,Ll'RCY 853

1963); small bells that are variants of type 1 occur in Costa Rica and are made from gold or a
copper-gold alloy (Hosler notes: American Museum of Natural History).
"A few very long, poorly crafted needles of this type are made from copper in West Mexico and
are probably copies of the Andean style using nonoptimal materials.
'Meighan ( 1969) dates two West Mexican tin-bronze artifacts-a chisel and a tweezer-to be-
fore 1275 (Hosler 1986). If the dates are correct, the objects may represent the earliest imported
copper-tin bronzes to West Mexico.
T h e use of these bronzes for color was unique in the Americas. I n ancient China, however, a
high tin leaded bronze was commonly used for casting ritual vessels.

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