essay
Investigation of an obsidian midden at Cihuatecpan, Mexico
excavations at cihuatecpan, an aztec village in the teotihuacan valley • (36) • Published In 1988 • Pages: 235-238
By: Abrams, Elliot Marc.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In the course of conducting the settlement survey and excavation of structures and features at the Aztec village of Cihuatecpan in 1984, two dense concentrations of obsidian debitage were encountered, and one of these, designated Operation 8, was investigated further, forming the basis of this article. The first part of this investigation involved the collection of artifacts - both obsidian and non-obsidian - from the surface of the site, followed by a test excavation of the feature itself. The quantity of obsidian, both in absolute weight and in density, clearly indicates that this feature was a midden deposit. The overwhelming presence of pressure and percussion flakes in the midden indicates that it served as the refuse area in the production of grey-black obsidian bifacial tools (p.237).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Mineral resources
- Lithic industries
- Refuse disposal and sanitary facilities
- Recording and collecting in the field
- Post depositional processes in archaeological sites
- Archaeological excavation methods
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Central Mexico Postclassic
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Mexico
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle; 2008
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1984
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1300-430 BP (700-1570 AD)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Cihuatecpan, Mexico
- NotesAdditional notes
- by Elliot M. Abrams
- for bibliographical references see document 8:Evans
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 89218802
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Aztecs--Antiquities/Land settlement patterns, Prehistoric--Mexico/Cihuatecpan Site (Mexico) Mexico, Valley of (Mexico)--Antiquities