Dorothy Hosler

Professor of Archeology and Ancient Technology

BA Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1966
PhD Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1986

Room 8-106, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA  02139
617-253-6991 (phone) 617-253-8090 (fax)
hosler@mit.edu
Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology

Prof. Hosler's research focuses on the production and use of copper and copper based alloys in the Ancient Americas (in Ecuador and Mexico) and the relation of those indigenous technologies to each other through long distance trade along the Pacific coast. The data collection takes place in Mexico and South America and laboratory-analytic research takes place at MIT. Prof. Hosler is currently carrying out fieldwork in the archaeologically unknown area of Guerrero, Mexico, where she has identified and will excavate sites where people were smelting ore and fashioning metal artifacts. Apart from metal production, her research also includes investigations of the production and functionality of archaeological pottery, stone, and bone objects and artifacts made from other materials, as well as materials/design research on ancient pyramids and other structures. 

Selected Publications

"Nuevos Hallazgos sobre la metalurgia antigua de Guerrero," La Arqueologia del estado de Guerrero. El gobierno del estado de Guerrero (2003).

"Metal Production," Chapter 21 in The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, University of Utah Press:159–171 (2003).

"La Elaboración del hule en el antiguo Mesoamerica," Arqueología Mexicana Vol VIII no 44: 54–57 (2000) (with M. Tarkanian).

"Recent Insights into the Metallurgical Technologies of Ancient Mesoamerica," Journal of Metals 51 (5): 11–14 (1999).

"Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica," Science 284 (5422): 1988–1991 (1999) (with others).

"Technical Choices, Social Categories and Meaning Among the Andean Potters of Las Animas," Journal of Material Culture 1 (1): 63–92 (1996).

"Copper Sources, Metal Production and Metals Trade in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica," Science 273 (5283): 1819–1824 (1996) (with A. Marcfarlane). 

The Sounds and Colors of Power: The Metallurgical Technology of Ancient West Mexico. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1994). 

"The Huastec Region: A Second Locus for the Production of Bronze Alloys in Ancient Mesoamerica," Science 257 (5074): 1215–1220 (1992) (with G. Stresser-Pean).   

Axe-Monies and Their Relatives. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology No. 30, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (1990).

Current Research in Guerrero

Prof. Hosler's 1998 survey of the Balsas region of Guerrero identified six metalworking sites, the most significant of which is La Barrranca de la Fundiciones (see Hosler 2003a, b). This site is located at 1400 meters in the Sierra Madre del Sur de Guerrero. The site covers about 1 kilometer and consists of three physically distinct areas: two zones contain long low rectangular structures (3-8m long) that may have served as house foundations or for other activities. Copper smelting took place in a third physically separate area where large accumulations of slag and disturbed furnace structures appear. We have completed excavations of one furnace structure and currently are analyzing the slag in the laboratories at MIT. Initial dates from both the smelting area and from the mounds suggest occupation around 1200–1300AD. Ethnic affiliations of these people cannot yet be determined but we expect excavations during the next several seasons to clarify this issue.La Barranca de Las Fundiciones is the first ancient copper-smelting site yet identified in Mesoamerica.

The Spring 2008 issue of the Journal of Anthropological Research reported research on oceangoing rafts and traderoutes in pre-Columbian South and Central America; this research was performed by Prof. Hosler and Leslie Dewan, former MIT undergraduate (see the MIT News Office for the full story, March 19, 2008). Prof. Hosler's research and teaching were profiled in Technology Review (Nov. 2004).