I chose this implement because it is one of the most complete specimens of this type of tool in the MuseumвЂ™s collections and because it is a great example of how much can be learned from an artifact.

Stone scrapers the same shape as those referred to as agave knives in the Southwest are frequently recovered in the archaeological sites of central Mexico, where they have been linked to fiber production and are referred to as azadas. There is evidence to suggest, however, that such tools formerly had stone blades among the OtomГ as well as the Aztecs. The OtomГ employ a wooden-handled scraping tool with a metal blade to extract fiber.

This form, with вЂњbuilt-inвЂќ handles, was common in southern Arizona between 9 C.E., but other implements used for this task likely consisted of a rectangular blade mounted in a wooden handle like those used by the OtomГ of central Mexico. Not all Hohokam tools used for removing agave pulp were T-shaped. In some Hohokam households, archaeologists have found toolkits that include tabular tools for removing leaves, tabular tools for pulp removal, and implements used in turning agave fiber into thread, such as spindle whorls. Tools with straight or convex working edges were best for processing leaves for fiber. Tabular tools with concave working edges were well-designed for removing leaves, but not for scraping pulp. Traces of agave fibers and other tell-tale residues have been found on some of these ancient implements. Agave fibers, once cleaned of pulp, were dried in the sun and then spun into thread for textiles.Д®xperiments in agave harvesting and processing by archaeologists and studies of scratches and other indicators of the different motions in which tools were used (chopping, slicing and sawing, scraping) have also provided evidence of the functions of these artifacts. Some of these tools formerly called hoes or knives, however, were actually used as scrapers for removing the thick pulp that surrounds the fibers in agave leaves. In the 1970s, the term вЂњtabular toolвЂќ became popular, reflecting the fact that such artifacts may have been used in a variety of activities.Д«ased on parallels between some ancient tabular tools and implements used during the early historic period in the Southwest (as well as metal tools used today, in Mexico), archaeologists infer that some of the artifacts previously identified as hoes or knives were used by the Hohokam to remove agave leaves from the core or вЂњheartвЂќ of the plant, which was then roasted and eaten.

Southwest referred to a class of thin, broad stone artifacts-often made from platy rocks such as slate or schist-as hoes, assuming that such implements were used to prepare and weed ancient agricultural fields.Д«y the 1960s, researchers began to call these objects вЂњmescal knivesвЂќ or вЂњagave knives,вЂќ having noted that the distribution of these artifacts matched the known range of agave and that native Southwestern peoples had traditionally used similar objects to harvest and process agave for food and fiber. Beginning in the late 1800s, archaeologists in the U.S.

Hohokam indians