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A greenish obsidian blade , conceive to have been ascertain on the Texas Panhandle , may be from the 16th - century expedition led by the Spanish Internet Explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado , a new written report suggests .
The sharp tool ’s provenance is foggy , but a chemical analytic thinking of the obsidian uncover that it descend from the Sierra de Pachuca mount range of Central Mexico , where many Indigenous hoi polloi on the jaunt got raw stuff for cut tools , the researchers establish . It ’s potential that an Indigenous somebody traveling with Coronado craft the blade in Mexico and later discarded it in Texas , which could avail determine Coronado ’s precise itinerary through the Lonestar State , the research worker say .
This small piece of obsidian may have been found on the Texas panhandle.
" Although Coronado ’s accurate route through the Texas Panhandle in AD 1541 is uncertain , current understanding suggests that it passed through or close to Mclean , " the researchers write in the study , published in January in theJournal of the North Texas Archeological Society .
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The 2.6 - in - long ( 6.5 centimetre ) blade belonged to Lloyd Erwin ( lived 1920 to 1992 ) , who began collecting Indigenous American and diachronic artifacts as a boy on his house ’s ranch north of McLean . However , Erwin did n’t allow any archaeological note of hand describe the leaf blade , so it ’s indecipherable when or where he take it . But the study ’s author suggest that he in all likelihood found the vane on the Texas Panhandle , possibly around McLean , as he did many of the other artifacts in his collection .
A map of northern New Mexico and the southern Great Plains showing the reconstructed paths of the Coronado expedition.
harmonise to common lore , Coronado and Spanish knight were sent by the king of Spain to see for the fabled amber Seven Cities of Cíbola . Nowadays , historian note that it was Antonio de Mendoza , Viceroy of New Spain ( mod - day Mexico ) , whoordered Coronado to find the rumored city ; alternatively , Coronado ’s expedition journey to modern - twenty-four hours Kansas before return empty handed . And Mendoza may actually have task Coronado with finding a route to Asia , Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint , a husband and wife squad who are research associates at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico , told Live Science . Neither of the Flints , who wrote " A Most Splendid Company : The Coronado Expedition in Global Perspective " ( University of New Mexico Press , 2019 ) , were involved with the new study .
The outing of at least2,800 peoplejourneyed across Mexico , Texas , New Mexico , Arizona , Oklahoma and Kansas from 1540 to 1542 . Because obsidian steel are unannealed , they were often discarded . " We surmise that this blade represents a hafted knife or razor carry northwards , " the researchers wrote in the cogitation .
" This small-scale unassuming artifact fits all of the prerequisite for convincing evidence of a Coronado presence in the Texas panhandle , " study atomic number 27 - authorMatthew Boulanger , an anthropologist at Southern Methodist University , order in astatement . Boulanger conducted the study alongside Charlene Erwin , the daughter - in - law of Lloyd Erwin .
X - ray fluorescence ( XRF ) spectrometry , a non - invading technique that determines an object ’s elemental composing , revealed that the blade is " whole reproducible with obsidian from the Sierra de Pachuca source in Central Mexico , " about 55 nautical mile ( 90 kilometers ) north-east of Mexico City , the source wrote in the study .
Indigenous hoi polloi , including the Nahua , used obsidian to make tool until shortly after the Spanish conquest , at which fourth dimension they switched to Fe , the authors wrote . There was no known grounds of a patronage web between the Indigenous peoples of Central Mexico and the Texas Panhandle at that prison term , the researchers noted , advise that the blade did n’t come to Texas through trade , but through an " entrada , " or a Spanish expedition into " new acres . "
While there were other entradas in this region in the 16th and 17th centuries , Coronado ’s was the largest and had the most warrior , so they were more likely to carry these obsidian vane , the investigator write .
But , given the uncertainty of the brand ’s origins , it ’s hard to say for certain whether it get from the Coronado expedition , the Flints said .
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" If it was really found there [ in McLean ] , it helps confirm what most of us think is already that corridor " where the expedition travel , Shirley Cushing Flint told Live Science . " Which is nice . You know , we do n’t have a piece from there . "
Richard Flint told Live Science the discovery " would be more convincing if there were other objects , not necessarily the same kind , but other one that might be also affiliate with the Coronado expedition . " Such a breakthrough , enunciate Flint , could bid good evidence that Coronado choke through hundreds of years ago .
