A Correction on “Preclassic Metal?”

Extract

The evidence for locating the find of sheet copper, reported by R. E. Smith (1944) and commented on by John L. Sorenson in American Antiquity (1954), has proved thoroughly unreliable.

Since the publication of the above find, which included 11 pottery vessels and other artifacts, I have learned that the pottery most probably did not come from San Miguel Ixtahuacan at all. Nothing even vaguely similar has been unearthed from that vicinity. It is much more closely related to material from the Salcaja-Momostenango region, as I pointed out in the article. Therefore, if the informant and original owner of the collection gave inaccurate information as to the provenience of the collection, he ma'y also have been in error as to copper being found in one of the above pre-Classic vessels.

This material was published in order to preserve the lot as a whole for students, because without regard to its provenience the pottery appeared to be a homogeneous collection, presumably found in a single grave or various graves of the same ceramic period.