Análisis de las huellas de manufactura del material malacológico de Tumbes, Perú

Abstract

To confirm the hypothesis that objects of mollusk shell from archaeological sites in Tumbes, Peru, had been worked using stone tools, some fragments of pieces from the Rica Playa´s Pre-Hispanic workshop were analyzed by experimental archaeology. Modern shells of the same species as the Rica Playa assemblage were abraded and cut using an archaeological stone tool; the wear patterns produced were compared with the archaeological pieces using Scanning Electron Microscopy (100x–1 000x). Apart from the knowledge of the specific tools used to work shell objects in the Andean Region, this paper confirms the validity of the methodology proposed by the Project «Técnicas de Manufactura de los objetos de concha del México Prehispánico», at the Templo Mayor Museum, Mexico City.

Keywords

• Peru
• scanning electron microscopy
• malacological material
• traces of manufacture
• Pre–Hispanic workshops
• Rica Playa