The archeologist studied the life of a farmer in the San Juan, Mexico to understand how the manufacture and trade of matateos and menois in the ancient city of Copan was carried out. The study of Filemeno Gabriel’s way of life shed light to how and why the farmers in ancient city of Copan manufactured the matateos and menois. It was noted that Gabriel made matateos in his spare time so as to supplement his budget. This was because as a farmer Gabriel could only produce what was enough for him, his family and the domestic animals he owned.
He had no surpluses from the produce that he would sell to supplement his budget, because the land he owned was a very little piece. This situation is similar to that in ancient Copan where the farmers were also part time matateo makers because their land although large was not fertile enough to give yields sufficient for their families and for them to trade for other goods, because butter was the dominant kind of trade in this time.
Also from the study of the mining of the rhylite used to make the matateos in San Juan and there transportation similarities were drawn by the archeologists the only difference is that in the New Mexico there were a few modern conveniences, for instance dynamite to blow up big blocks of the rhylite to manageable pieces and the use of animals to transport the blocks. The circumstances as to why Gabriel sold the matateos closer to his home also made the archaeologist explain why the farmers lived close to the homes of the nobles. This was because if they lived far from the market it would be difficult for them to supply the goods, same as Gabriel who does not sell his matateos in distant markets because if the cost of transportation is added then he would have to sell them at exorbitant prices.
Similarities are also drawn from the high specialization of the tannery industry in Fez, Morocco to the ancient city of Ostia. The situation of high specialization in fez especially the transport sector sheds light to the situation in the shipping of goods in Ostia. The ship merchants in Ostia were highly specialized in their line of work to the point that particular goods were carried by specific merchants, similar to Fez where the tannery business had nearly twenty levels of specialization.
There were also remnants of what were believed to be club houses of different guilds that the ship merchants were in, similar to the guilds that exist in the present city of Fez in the tannery business. The players in tannery business in this guilds to help them protect their interests which is similar to those in Ostia whereby they went as far as curving a sculpture of emperor Trajan so that he could be associated with them for them to better protect their interests, and also be considered as being of an upper echelon in Ostia.
Question Two
The clay figurines are important because they help us understand better the way of life in Teotihuacan, and the transitions the city went through. Firstly by the number of clay figurines excavated, it may represent the first ever instance of mass production in the new world. The figurines also show how the city was highly specialized and this is also an indication of the rapid growth of the city.
These figurines also provided the answers as to whether the increased specialization led to a change of way of life in the city. It was established that this was so because older models of the figurines were discovered to have been made by females while the latter figurines were made by men. This showed that after the establishment of apartment complexes in 250 A.D the city moved from greatly depending on agriculture to being dependent on exports of the figurines, because men dominated the agricultural sector and they shifted to making the figurines. This showed that the making of the figurines was full time and that the city had very high levels of specialization.
The obsidian also showed the amount of specialization that was reached in the city of Teotihuacan. For instance the large blocks of obsidian at the mining site had to be cut to small cores that could be easily transported. After transportation the cores had to be processed to cylindrical blades by the people who had the expertise. Thus people specialized in the various stages in the processing of the obsidian blocks to blades.
The figurines and the obsidian processing led to the tremendous growth of Teotihuacan and an increased level of trade. This is evidence by the discovery of the obsidian blades in nearly the whole of Mesoamerica and some were found as far as Copan. This showed that Teotihuacan was a very important city in Mesoamerica because it was responsible for the supply of the obsidian blades which were very important tools at the time. The discovery of the obsidian blades in the various cities also showed how the city of Teotihuacan had a heavy dependence on export trade. From analysis of these two artifacts it can be said that the city of Teotihuacan was the central place where most of the trades took place in Mesoamerica and it was also the most advanced and developed city because of the high levels of specialization that were practiced in the city.
