knapped or flaked beads

[joshuaream]

Here is part of a cache of about 200 obsidian beads and a couple of effigies from central Mexico. The beads are bifacially worked around a drilled hole.

About 10% of the disks were broken, I enjoy puzzles but gluing them back together was a challenge.

 

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[Neanderthal]

Stellar! Love those.

 

[joshuaream]

Here are the 100 or so in this frame.

 

[11KBP]

Unique beads Josh!

Drilling volcanic glass during prehistoric times, now that would have been an interesting procedure to witness.

I would think is would have been a time consuming job?

11KBP

 

[Neanderthal]

Josh, have you ever done any experimentation yourself on the drilling procedures? Like 11kbp said, it seems like it would be a lengthy process.

 

[joshuaream]

11KBP,

The Aztec and other groups in central Mexico did some amazing things with obsidian, here is a pair of obsidian ear spools that are about as thin as the glass on a light bulb. These were from the templo mayor I believe.

Here is a shot of a more common style that is surprisingly strong.

Unfortunately, they are not mine.

 

[joshuaream]

Josh, have you ever done any experimentation yourself on the drilling procedures? Like 11kbp said, it seems like it would be a lengthy process.

No I've never played around with it much.. I can knap a bit, but I just don't like obsidian. The key to the Aztecs and other groups in Mesoamerica is that they had full time artists working on these things. Their obsidian workers didn't farm, didn't cook, etc. They were generational skilled workers, making obsidian cores, bifaces and some aparently worked on things like earspools, labrets, cups, carvings, etc.

That said, obsidian is really quite soft. I've seen some spool blanks where they knapped a piece in to shape, and then ground it down with sand stone. The final work and polish was probably done like jade and greenstone, with grease and fine powder. It seems like the trick was leaving it thick enough to support the grinding, and then hollowing it out.

 

[11KBP]

11KBP,

The Aztec and other groups in central Mexico did some amazing things with obsidian, here is a pair of obsidian ear spools that are about as thin as the glass on a light bulb. These were from the templo mayor I believe.

Here is a shot of a more common style that is surprisingly strong.

Unfortunately, they are not mine.

The ear spools are unreal Josh.

It makes you wonder how far advanced those people would have been by now if the Europeans would have left them alone.

 

[flintdigger]

Great stuff !!!

 

[naturegirl]

Thanks for the pictures and info Josh. Thanks to you and many others on this forum, we get to see things impossible to travel around and see. I know, I can google, but that takes more time than I have to give to the 'puter. It's contributions like this that make this a wonderfully informative place. A virtual museum

thanks again,
lisa

 

[*Molly*]

Amazing. I was going to get a knapper to make me something simular, for a few necklaces but I would hate the thought of them getting on the market..
That orange n black pendant is fabulous.

Great threads today hon. Thanks.

Molly.

 

[SoIll]

Thanks for showing your killer collection with us today.

I always wanted to ask what your avatar was?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Graet looking pieces Joshua. I bet that Obsidian was really hard to work into items like that.

 

[jeff a]

those are great, does the point in the second pic just to the right of the tan point have a name, i have one just like it from mexico

 

[joshuaream]

I've never seen a name for the type, but it's a style of point that was made at the Teotihuacan workshops and predates the Aztec material by better than a 1000 years. Like many Teotihuacan artifacts, they were traded extensively.

One of the workshops covers a couple acres and is nothing more than a huge midden about 4 or 5 feet thick of small pressure flakes made from these points and large bifaces. The other big workshop is larger and is just debitage from making cores for core blades.

 

[jeff a]

thanks for the info here is a pic

 

[ohio]

super cool artifacts Josh. Wow! Great post.

Chuck

 

[Th3rty7]

Wow, very nice thanks for the look. Those ear spools are amazing, I just can't understand how they were able to work that obsidian with such precision and skill.