Testing the accuracy of portable X-ray fluorescence to study Aztec and Colonial obsidian supply at Xaltocan, Mexico

This article demonstrates the accuracy of non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) for the study of obsidian in central Mexico. Obsidian sources were identified for a sample of 103 artifacts from the site of Xaltocan, which spanned the rise and fall of the Aztec empire and the first centuries of Spanish colonial rule (AD 900–1700). Sources were assigned by comparing pXRF measurements with previously published source data and were verified using the standard techniques of laboratory XRF (lXRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Additional tests of potentially confounding factors show that neither length of read time, presence of surface residue, nor incomplete detector coverage due to small artifact size compromised our ability to attribute sources to artifacts. Concave surfaces did decrease the accuracy of readings because of the greater distance between the artifact and the detector. Our results provide new insight into the stability of supply networks and markets well into the Colonial period as well as the homogenizing tendencies of the Aztec market system.

► Portable X-ray fluorescence is a non-destructive means to source obsidian objects.
► This technique can accurately identify sources commonly used in central Mexico.
► We study 800 years of obsidian use in Postclassic and Colonial central Mexico.
► Larger obsidian supply networks lasted well beyond the Spanish conquest.