page_title: Tarascan state
section_title: Metallurgy
hierarchical_section_title: Tarascan state / Metallurgy
caption_attribution_description: An anthropomorphic coyote or a male human with a coyote head. w:en:Tarascan state. Height: 43.5 cm (17 in)
context_page_description: The Tarascan state was a state in pre-Columbian Mexico, roughly covering the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán, parts of Jalisco, and Guanajuato. At the time of the Spanish conquest, it was the second-largest state in Mesoamerica.
  The state was founded in the early 14th century and lost its independence to the Spanish in 1530. In 1543 it officially became the governorship of Michoacán, from the Nahuatl name for the Tarascan state, Michoacán.
  The Tarascan state was constituted of a network of tributary systems and gradually became increasingly centralized, under the control of the ruler of the state called the cazonci. The Tarascan capital was located at Tzintzuntzan on the banks of Lake Pátzcuaro, and, according to Purépecha oral tradition was founded by the first cazonci Tariácuri and dominated by his lineage, the "Uacúsecha"; however the largest city may have been Angamuco, extensive ruins of which were discovered in 2012 using LiDAR technology.
  The Tarascan state was contemporary with and an enemy of the Aztec Empire, against which it fought many wars.
context_section_description: West states, "The Tarascans and their neighbors near the Pacific coast were the foremost metallurgists of pre-Conquest Mexico."  This included copper, silver and gold, where Michoacán and Colima provided placer gold, Tamazula provided silver, and the La Huacana area provided copper.  Copper-silver alloy artefacts found in the palaces and graves of Tzintzuntzan include rodelas, armlets, bracelets and cups.  Copper bells made from lost-wax casting were used in religious ceremonies from 650 AD to at least 1200.  This was followed by copper-gold and copper-silver items such as discs, bracelets, diadems and masks.  Other items were made from bronze, including needles, fishhooks, tweezers, axeheads, and awls.  The religious national treasures were looted by the Spanish during the Conquest from Lake Patzcuaro graves and storerooms.
caption: Pre-Columbian coyote statuette attributed to the Tarascan culture,[7] likely a representation of the coyote god Uitzimángari.[8] Height: 43.5 cm (17 in).
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