The dating and regional placement of these objects is very difficult because they were used throughout Mesoamerica since the Preclassic period. In this case we can affirm that it belongs to the Post-Classic period since, in the previous eras, gold was not used. But the variety and abundance of these objects is such that it could just as well be Mexica or Mixtec or from another culture.
Normally, those that wore earrings also wore labrets; they were complementary elements of the body adornment of Mesoamerican nobility. They begin to appear in the Preclassic, especially in the Olmec era, when status differences within society were already well established. One thing we know for sure, they are artifacts used exclusively by of the elite of each city. Ordinary people could not wear these ornaments, which were intended to highlight the prestige and authority of their s.
We must that they are not pendants but pieces that fit into slots made in the flesh. Generally, the nobles pierced the ears and the lower lip of their children from a young age so that they could grow accustomed to wearing such ornaments, using small pieces first. The size, quality of material and sophistication of the design, of both labrets and earrings, was related to the hierarchy and wealth of their .
The labret was worn in a perforation made in the lower lip. The legs or fins that can be seen in these pieces remained inside the mouth, next to the gums, and the prominent part, usually circular, as in these examples, showed between the lip and chin.
Some Spanish chroniclers refer to the people of ancient indigenous nobility as having saggy ears and visible perforations as they were forbidden from wearing their earrings and labrets during the colonial era. They also mention that they had a visible hole under the lip where the labret that functioned as a plug was previously worn starting at childhood. Of course, in the case of brave warriors and others who, because of their merits, had received a senior position and therefore the right to wear earrings and labrets, they had to endure the piercings in adulthood without the preparation from early childhood that the nobles received.
Regarding the strictness with which the implicit social distinction of the use of these ornaments was applied, it is worth noting that Nahua law before the conquest contemplated the death penalty for those who wore them without the rank that entitled them to do so.
The dating and regional placement of these objects is very difficult because they were used throughout Mesoamerica since the Preclassic period. In this case we can affirm that it belongs to the Post-Classic period since, in the previous eras, gold was not used. But the variety and abundance of these objects is such that it could just as well be Mexica or Mixtec or from another culture.
