11/11/23 Report - Turquoise and Silver Jewelry From the Aztec to the Navaho, Hopi and Zuni Until Today.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Some Silver and Turquoise Ring Finds.

If you've been detecting for a long time, you probably have noticed trends in your finds.  Of course, it matters where you hunt, but during different time periods or eras you will find more or less of different types of finds.

Back in the 70s or 80s I found a lot of silver and turquoise jewelry, especially at some places, such as Hollywood Beach.  

Silver Prices.

As you can see, silver prices have changed dramatically over the years.  One spike was back around 1980 when it shot up to around $50 from $5.  As I recall, the Hunt brothers cornered the market on silver and drove up the prices the first time..  There was another big spike around 2011 or 2012.  Right now it is somewhere around $22 per ounce.

As for the turquoise, it has been valued in the Americas since pre-Columbian times.

A 16th-century Aztec document called the Codex Mendoza records tribute paid by conquered provinces to the Aztec capital. It mentions shipments of turquoise from three provinces: one in parts of the modern Mexican states of Guerrero and Puebla and one in the western part of modern-day Oaxaca, along with a third province in northern Veracruz, which at the time was the far northeastern corner of the Aztec Empire.

The logical assumption is that the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Puebloan peoples of the Southwestern US traded their local turquoise for goods from Mexico and farther south, so the provinces in the Codex Mendoza were importing the turquoise they sent as tribute. But it turns out that the chemical signatures in Aztec and Mixtec turquoise tiles don't match that of Southwestern US rocks; they actually match Mesoamerican rocks.. (Source: New study rethinks pre-Columbian turquoise trade | Ars Technica)

You can still find turquoise in the American Southwest. See Where And How We Find And Identify Turquoise In 2023 (rockchasing.com)

It was the Navajo tribe that was primarily responsible for teaching other southwestern tribes how to make Native American rings, necklaces, belt buckles, and bracelets. They learned about jewelry making when they came into regular contact with the Spanish around the 16th century. The Navajo noticed the jewelry worn by the Spaniards and how that jewelry granted them a certain status in society. They began wanting to make it for themselves. The influence of the Spanish can clearly be seen by the use of the pomegranate blossom, sometimes known as the squash blossom necklace, which was inspired by the Moorish crescent.

Over the next 200 years, the Navajo learned how to make jewelry and to trade with the Spaniards for their jewelry. The Navajo enjoyed using the cross or crescent shaped naja on rawhide necklaces and it became a symbol of power. It is not known when the Navajo began using silver to make their jewelry, but best estimates are that Atsidi Sani was the first Navajo silversmith and that he learned to use silver in jewelry around the early 1860s.

To get silver to make jewelry, the Navajo often melted down silver coins. If they traded with the Spanish for such items as teapots or candlesticks, they would melt those as well. Although it was almost impossible to enforce the law the government passed in 1890 making it illegal to deface currency, the Navajo often turned to using silver Mexican coins as a resource.

At first, the Navajo concentrated on using silver to create concha type jewelry such as concha belts, bracelets, Native American rings, pins, necklaces, and hair ornaments. Within the next thirty years, Sani had taught many other Navajo to be silversmiths and use silver in jewelry. To get the decoration on the silver, the silversmith would hammer it on with a file. The Navajo then began using turquoise, a stone very in demand and valued by them, in the 1880s. It was also around this time that the Mexican silversmiths, called plateros, began traveling to the southwest for trade. Their styles also influenced the Navajo jewelry making.

By 1872, the Zuni tribe was making Native American jewelry as well as the Navajo. They were already working with copper, brass, and iron, so it only seemed natural to begin using silver. Soon one of the Zuni silversmith shared his jewelry making with someone from the Hopi tribe. Each tribe began to develop its own style as they shared information. As their technique grew, they started using solder and were able to join two or more pieces together as well as set stones such as turquoise in their jewelry...

Here is that link.

A History of Native American Rings and Jewelry (indians.org)

Like with everything else, there are fakes.  Other stones are dyed to look like turquoise and foreign factories produce jewelry to mimic Native American.

There are sites where you can learn to identify quality turquoise and quality jewelry produced by Native American craftsmen.

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Surf Chart for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area from SurfGuru.com.

So, it looks like we'll be getting a surf in the three to six foot range.  I consider four to six feet to be borderline.  It can improve overall beach conditions if everything else is good, but in this case the angles don't look good.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net