Decorative objects, among them those that we consider jewels, were elaborated from diverse materials in Mesoamerica. Obsidian, some metals and green stones were used in objects of various kinds, including accessories that denoted a certain political and religious status, as in the case of earrings. Gold, on the other hand, was valued as a raw material of great importance and symbolism, but for the indigenous peoples it did not have the inordinate value that other cultures like the European ones granted it. In addition, the use of this metal in Mesoamerica was rather scarce. Metallurgy developed late in this region, and in particular gold was only used in its native state, meaning that the benefits obtained from its alloy with other metals such as silver or copper were unknown.
In the case of the pieces described here, they are a pair of earrings made of green obsidian, probably obtained from the Sierra de las Navajas site in Hidalgo, which were made using the technique of grinding and polishing, and two circular gold sheets were placed upon them as a stud; these were made using the hammered lamination technique. Both earrings have a circular front face, while their lateral face has the shape of a wide spool with divergent curved sides. One of them is cut on the edge of its front face and has a missing gold plate in its central section, which is also fractured.
The earrings are accessories that adorned the earlobes of people with a certain social and political hierarchy in Pre-Hispanic societies. Their distribution in Mesoamerica is continuous, both in time as well as across all its cultural regions. They have been found carved in green stones, obsidian, elaborated in ceramic, bone and wood. It is perhaps a little less common to find them combining different materials, as in the case of these earrings. Gold, as we have already said, was used to decorate the clothing of the rulers and people of important political and social hierarchy, especially those vested by the tlatoani. In addition, it was associated with Huitzilopochtli and, consequently, with the cult of the sun. The offerings that have been located in the Grand Temple, where gold and green stones share the same space, have led specialists to link it with fertility.
The gold objects also tell us about the exchange networks in use in Pre-Hispanic times. In the case of the Mexicas, gold was obtained as a tribute, particularly from the regions of Guerrero and Chiapas. On the other hand, the merchants, or pochtecas, could acquire it in trading places that were close to the extraction areas. With the arrival of the Spanish gold became the most coveted material, taking the conquerors by surprise to note that the quantities of this metal that were in the hands of the indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica were considerably lower than those of other conquered regions, as in Peru, where gold practically tripled the profits for the Spanish crown.
Decorative objects, among them those that we consider jewels, were elaborated from diverse materials in Mesoamerica. Obsidian, some metals and green stones were used in objects of various kinds, including accessories that denoted a certain political and religious status, as in the case of earrings. Gold, on the other hand, was valued as a raw material of great importance and symbolism, but for the indigenous peoples it did not have the inordinate value that other cultures like the European ones granted it. In addition, the use of this metal in Mesoamerica was rather scarce. Metallurgy developed late in this region, and in particular gold was only used in its native state, meaning that the benefits obtained from its alloy with other metals such as silver or copper were unknown.
