Located 3000 meters above the sea level , the hill known in his Nahuatl name Itzépetl - itzetl for obsidian, and tepetl for hill - and in
Spanish as the Cerro de las Navajas , houses a mine recognized for its obsidian veins of several colors: black , jade green and reddish .
Archaeology refer this place as the main obsidian's supply
center of Teotihuacan. Many Toltec and Aztec
remains have been found : arrowheads , knives, tomahawks, various decorative utensils and food preparation .
Spearheads in obsidian found at Palenque
/ Museum of the Americas Madrid - Photo Simon Burchell .
Obsidian was known in pre- Hispanic times as
the " stone of the gods " ... what inspired the legend:
A woman named Xochitzol , sun flower , was in love with a warrior.
His father, a priest, does not approve the marriage, and sent the warrior to war.
Before adjourning , the lovers went on the hill and it sealed a pact of love .
Xochitzol said: " I will not marry me before you return."
Time passed and the warrior did not
return. Xochitzol climbed the hill again, in order to not stop crying .
God asked him the reason for her tears , and how he could console ... Xochitzol implored : " my tears become a shining lighthouse to guide the return of my beloved ." The gods then changed her tears in obsidian .
To date, the love is not returned and
she always cries ... her tears became the whisper of the wind , and there is always obsidian for all.
Origin of obsdian's deposits :
A single
volcanic region can include a variety of obsidian flows , each characterized by optical and chemical properties clean and different .
Sierra de Pachuca, south of Huasca
de Ocampo, has green, gray and brown obsidian.
This
rhyolitic volcanic center is located north of TMVB - Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt , and its deposits covering about 250 km², consisting mainly of rhyolitic lava flows and pyroclastic flows, and
numerous cinder cones and their lava flows .
Mexico - Sierra de Pachuca - Photo Eneas de
Troya
Geological
map of Sierra de Pachuca / according Ponomarenko 2004 - the dotted ellipses indicate the important pre -Hispanic mining areas. / In work of Denisse Argote - Espino, references in sources.
Sierra de Pachuca has
four eruptive complex , each consisting of one or more lava flows covering the same magma chamber . In all cases , obsidian took place in continuous bands in a broad lava flow .
The first carrier
obsidian is the Guajalote flow, southwest , followed by green obsidian Las Minas in flows towards the west and south .
The
collapse of the northern flank of the volcano then caused a large debris avalanche and caused explosive eruptions. We can see these deposits , dated to about 2 Ma , near Tulancingo , covering an
old pyroclastic flow , which in turn covered observed basalts that gave the organs of San Miguel
Regla. .
The post-avalanche
Ixatla flow filled in part the collapse amphitheater, and is associated with the gray obsidian .
Finally , the complex of rhyolite
and obsidian El Horcon covered the collapse scar, overwhelmed and formed the major peaks of the Sierra de Pachuca . The northern and eastern flanks of the Sierra Las Navajas were also covered by the El
Horcon flows.
Obsidian shards of Las Navajas - Photo Trotademexico
Obsidian
from this region presents itself in two forms : either part of the lava flow, either in blocks carted below by an avalanche. The obtaining of obsidian is
most often deep mine shafts, and by horizontal multi-branch tunnels penetrating the subsurface layers .
In the mine : veins of obsidian - Photo Tulancingocultural
Sources :
- Obsidian Subsource Identification in the Sierra de Pachuca and Otumba Volcanic Regions, Central Mexico, by ICP-MS andDBSCAN
Statistical Analysis/ Denisse Argote-Espino & al. / UNAM - link
- Tulancigocultural - Los vestigios arqueológicos del Cerro de las Navajas, rica mina de obsidiana - link
