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The Obsidian Hydration Dating Project at Copan: A Regional Approach and Why It Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David Webster ,
AnnCorinne Freter  and
David Rue
David Webster
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
AnnCorinne Freter
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701
David Rue
Affiliation:
Archaeological and Historical Consultants Inc., 101 North Pennsylvania Ave., Centre Hall, PA 16808
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Abstract

Settlement research at Copán, Honduras, since 1984 has produced the largest set of obsidian-hydration dates from excavated contexts available for Mesoamerica (Webster and Freter 1990). Geoffrey Braswell (1992) has criticized the methodology underlying our research, specific associations of our published data, and particularly our reconstruction of a demographic and political decline at Copán that extended well beyond A.D. 900. Braswell has incorrectly characterized the Copan Obsidian Hydration Dating Project’s methodology, and makes many factual errors in assessing the Copán data. In this paper the authors correct these errors, discuss basic issues of obsidian-hydration-dating methodology, and offer new data from Copán to evaluate the efficacy of hydration dating as a method and its potential future application for Mesoamerica as a whole.

Desde 1984, la investigación arqueológica de los poblados en Copán, Honduras, ha producido la serie más extensa de fechas basadas en la hidratación de obsidiana derivada de sitios bien excavados, en toda Mesoamérica (Webster y Freter 1990). Geoffrey Braswell (1992) ha criticado la metodología usada en nuestra investigación, las asociaciones específicas de los datos de tiempo, y en particular, nuestra reconstrucción del ocaso demográfico y político de Copán, que ocurrió mucho después del año 900 D.C. Braswell ha juzgado mal nuestra metodología, y comete muchos errores reales al evaluar los datos de Copán. Este trabajo corrige dichos errores, discute los puntos básicos de la metodología de la hidratación, y ofrece nuevos datos procedentes de Copán para evaluar su eficacia como método de gran potencial para fijar fechas en Mesoamérica.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 303 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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