Use of a cranium-vessel determined by means of compound analysis

Many human remains as bones, skin, teeth and others, were used in pre-hispanic cultures as tools or ritual objects. A human cranial vault filed in the Direccion de Antropologia Fisica presented particular and interesting cultural modifications. There are twelve drills used to restore by sewing the crane, in this way the piece resembles a pot. It has been established that it comes from North Mexico where such restoration work has been reported (Aveleyra, 1956) for containers made of vegetables (guaje). As the utilization of this kind of archaeological remain is unknown, the study of dust samples from the inside and the outside of the crane should provide hints on the products stored into it. In this study we present the X-ray diffraction results which show that the outer dusts are mainly constituted by albite, andesite and quartz, whereas in the inside the substances were mainly aluminosilicates and magnesium compounds. Hence, most probably, this crane was not used as a conventional container and it is linked to the concoction of magnesium and aluminosilicates containing products. This conclusion has to be correlated to that even nowadays, in both alternative and conventional medicine. (Author) 7 refs., 7 figs