
New chemical analysis of Aztec turquoise suggests it didn’t come from the SW US - curtis
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/isotope-analysis-says-aztecs-preferred-locally-grown-turquoise/
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ggm
I fear this is going to feed "because we can't find the mines, it must be
China" crazyness.

Cool story, mind you.

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INTPenis
So there are copper deposits outside of SW US. But no turquoise? I'm unsure of
what the article is suggesting.

I understand that we have to rethink trade networks across central america but
I'm more interested in where this turquoise came from. The logical conclusion
would be local copper deposits, which the article states there are several of
in mesoamerica.

But it never clarifies if those deposits are producing turquoise, or could
have produced it in the past. Maybe it was all just mined out was my first
thought.

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nwatson
From TFA: "But there are still no known turquoise deposits in Mesoamerica. The
explanation, say Thibodeau and her colleagues, is that turquoise deposits tend
to be shallow, and they can be mined to depletion in short order. And there
are copper deposits all over Mesoamerica. Thibodeau and her colleagues said
the turquoise mines that supplied the Aztecs may have been mined out well
before Europeans set foot on the continent."

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xivusr
The article headline should be Colombia, not Columbia.

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juanger
Not in this case, pre-Columbian means "before Columbus".

Colombia was named after Columbus (Colón in spanish) but in this case it is
talking about the time before the discovery of America by the Europeans and in
particular Columbus in 1492.

