LITHICS COLLECTION The MNAAHP Lithics Department presently has 18,250 archeological pieces from different places in our country and belonging to every period of our cultural history. From the first instruments elaborated since approximately 12,000 B.C., which show evidence of hunting and gathering activities, to the sumptuary and religious objects corresponding to later times. Among the collections we find instruments used for the development of subsistence labor: projectile points, knives, scrapers, axes, hoes, mortars, grindingstones, hammerstones, etc.; instruments utilized for the manufacture of ceramics and metal pieces: polishers, small anvils, hammers, repoussé hammers, etc.; art objects possibly used in rituals: sculptures of deities that ornamented temples, vessels finely worked with images of mythological beings, beads for necklaces, sculptures of animals and plants, among others.