Copper tajadero (chopping knife), used as a medium of exchange

Collection type: Object
Description: Copper tajadero (chopping knife), used as a medium of exchange
Long description: Axe-shaped object of thin copper or copper alloy, said to have been used for barter. The blade is crescentic with a broad flanged tang. [LM 23/10/2007]
Geographical reference: Mexico
Latin America and the Caribbean > Central America > Mexico; Northern Oaxaca
Person: Field collector C.C. James; PRM source C.C. James
Date / Period: Archaeological period: Mixtec Archaeological period: Post-Classic
Date collected: By 1943
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1943
Materials and processes: Material Copper Metal, Material Copper Alloy Metal, Process Cast
Dimensions: Length: max 122 mm, Width: max 153 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1943.10.75B Other numbers: 75
Research and responses: Related Documents File - Correspondence from C.C. James to Beatrice Blackwood regarding the sale of a small collection of Mexican archaeological finds. The first letter is dated 28 August 1943: 'For many years I have been a student of Mexican Archaeology & during a residence in that country of nearly 40 years, acquired a collection of idols which is now in England, many of which were excavated personally. The collection consists of ceramics, stone implements & carved pieces of jadeite & obsidian & artefacts of basalt, shell, copper &c. They were obtained from many sites in the Republic and represent the different cultures of ancient Mexico. Mr. Braunholtz, of the British Museum suggest that perhaps your Museum might be interested in the purchase of these antiquities & kindly stated I could use his name as a reference. He has twice seen the collection & has purchased specimens for the B.M. I have divided the collection into Lots. ... Each lot sold would be accompanied by a short description indicating the composition, location, & civilization of each individual piece & when possible, the depth & nature of the soil where found. ...'
On 1 September 1943, H.J. Braunholtz from the Department of Oriental Antiquities and of Ethnography, British Museum, wrote a letter of reference for C.C. James to Blackwood. This letter also include information on some of the types of objects purchased by the British Museum from James. [See Biographies.]
On 6 September 1943 James replies to Blackwood: '... I would suggest for your exhibition a collection of terra cotta heads corresponding to each of three [?sic] main types found in the Valley of Mexico together with specimens of funerary bowls, spindle whorls, obsidian blades, seals, &c of the same cultures. They would be classified under the following heads: Composition, Form, Civilisation, & location & the period of individual piece given where possible. The Oaxaca types would include I Zapotec: funerary urns, heads. II Mixtec: jadeite figurines, necklaces, copper bells & pieces shaped thus: [Drawing]. A third group could be included comprising artefacts from the states of Veracruz, Mich[illegible] & the districts of T[illegible] Texeres [?semilegible] [?sic- semilegible], [illegible word] &c. ...'
Letter, to Blackwood from James, dated 23 September 1943 confirming postage of artefacts and suggesting a price. Also included is a hand-written list of objects sent to the Pitt Rivers Museum, including Composition, Form, Civilization, Location, and Remarks (often including soil layer in which the object was found).
27 September 1943, hand-written receipt from James for the amount paid by the Pitt Rivers Museum for the collection.
30 September 1943, from James to Blackwood: '... I will try to answer your questions. All the artefacts, Nos. 56 - 63 [see list in file] were found in the upper strata of the Asha [?sic] zone at San Miguel Amantla, near Atzcapotzal - ie from the surface to a depth of about 12" (See map [included with list]) The depth of this layer varied in different excavations from a few inches to about 18" as a maximum. San Miguel Amantla is a mere village. Nos. 66 - 75. I cannot give you the names of the villages where the Mextes [? - semilegible] artefacts were found. They could not have been found at Etla. The latter tow & tribe were points on the boundary line where the Zapotec-Mextes civilisations met, the latter continuing North where it joined the Tepeace & Cholula fork. The latter did very little in stone work but all three specialized in the manufacture of polychrome pottery. No. 52, as you state is an axe head. Most of these implements however were used both as hammers and axes as the wear on both ends of many of them indicates. Our present modern hammer seems to be a variant of this idea. Tools and implements of the different periods. Archaic. Arrow heads & other pointed instruments of chipped obsidian. Blades of obsidian used for knives and scrapers. Stone hammers, axes & 9 [?sic] other different shapes used as hammers & rubbing stones. Metates & metlapilli. - These are querns with grinding stones used for grinding corn, tomatoes, chocolate, &c. They are somewhat similar in shape to those found in Britain. These occur in all periods & the earliest known are of the forms used in Mexico at the present time. Bone Awls and needles: The former [?sic] served as bodkins & awls & perhaps for removing corn kernels from their cobs. Chiefly made of deer horn. Spindle whorls were plain with little or no decoration. The Treten [? - semilegible] & Aztec tools were the same as the above with the following differences. Obsidian was of the lustrous variety instead of opaque & consequently came from a different quarry. Workmanship of stone hammer, axes, arrow heads was superior to the archaic. Incised decoration of spindle whorls improved in the Toltec period and reached its Zenith with the Aztecs. The obsidian core was worked in the same way as the flint cores in Britain. All these objects were interred with the dead. Under separate cover I am forwarding a bone tool from S. Juanico (Archaic) and a bone needle and obsidian knife from Atzcapotzal (Teotihuacan) which I would like the Museum to accept as a small donation.' [See file for complete texts.] [MOB 8/1/2002]

Search terms: Currency, Trade, Tool, Token, Axe