donald r raab Wrote:
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> Not a one off anymore.
>
> [www.ancient-origins.net]


A thermoluminescence test was performed in 1995 by P. Schaaf and G.A. Wagner which established its age range to somewhere between the 9th century BC and the middle of the 13th century AD, confirming its pre-colonial provenance.

So, how did it get in a Mesoamerican context?

1. It was brought by a Roman or classical ship either manned or found in one that was swept out to sea and came ashore in the Americas.
2. It was traded to Asia and was aboard a ship that was abandoned and came by currents to the Americas (or deliberately sailed here) such drift voyages were documented in historic times.
3. An earlier European explorer brought it, however such an explorer did not set off a ‘Columbian exchange’ and no diseases wiped out much of the Americas which is what happened with Columbus (but didn’t from the Viking in the NE).
4. A hoax by another archaeologist ( Hugo Moedano).
5. It arrived with the Spanish and was incorporated into the burial. A Spaniard had been ship wrecked in Mexico before Cortes. [en.wikipedia.org] and example of how materials can be inserted into a culture prior to full contact.
Take your pick of 1–5