Oaxaca (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
51-75 (197 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Feathered Serpent iconography among Mixtec, Zapotec, Chontal, and Huave ethnic groups of Oaxaca, Mexico indicates that its sociopolitical and religious roles are concomitant with an investment in mythological landscapes and spiritually active ritual environments. Our approach to hybrid serpents...
Feature Excavation Forms, Terrace S25, Cerro Danush (2015)
Excavation forms for features excavated on Terrace S25
Feline Pedestal Sculptures, Cacao, and the Late Formative Landscape of Mesoamerica (2018)
Pedestal sculptures featuring supernatural felines with cacao drupes projecting from their foreheads dotted the Late Formative landscape of the Pacific slope and adjacent Guatemalan Highlands. In this paper we consider the implications of the replication of this sculptural form, its role in articulating an elite agenda linked to the production of cacao, and its pertinence to sites of varying scale and relative regional authority. A similar suite of meanings engaged with cacao and supernatural...
Flower Worlds of the Pacific Coast (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Flower World: Religion, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the richest repertoires of Mesoamerican flower imagery comes from the Pacific coast of Guatemala. In this paper, I trace the temporal variations in religious beliefs and imagery related to portentous places of beauty known that modern scholars designated as "flower worlds." Lush...
Food from the Barranca: A 13,000-Year Perspective from the Yuzanú Drainage of the Mixteca Alta (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Barrancas are marginal spaces in the cultural ecology and cultural perceptions of modern-day inhabitants and visitors of the Mixteca Alta. They tend to be little-contested commons where the poor graze their animals, hunt, gather fuelwood and occasional culinary curiosities. They rarely figure in the villagers' get-rich schemes or outsiders' research...
Foodways and Diet in the Prehispanic Mixteca Alta : Ceramic and Isotope Analyses in the Specific Case of the Tomb 1 Burial in Nduatiucu (San Felipe Ixtapa, Teposcolula) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation examines the archaeological possibilities for investigating prehispanic foodways and diet. We do this through the analysis of a burial recovered in Tomb 1 at Nduatiucu, in the Teposcolula valley in the Mixteca Alta. The burial first excavated in the 1970s by Winter et al. (1975) and later re-assessed and radiocarbon dated by Saumur...
Foodways and Human-Animal Relations at Early Formative Etlatongo: An Ontology of Differentiation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The origins of Oaxacan cuisines can be found in the later half of the Early Formative period, a time of emerging socio-political complexity. The incorporation of maize as a dietary staple and less reliance on wild plants and animals were part of a profound change in subsistence practices and conceptions of food in much of Mesoamerica. We argue that...
Foregrounding Food: Mixtec Cuisine, Identity, and Household Ritual at Late Postclassic Tututepec, Oaxaca (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper highlights the results of a recent analysis of macrobotanical remains from commoner households at the Late Postclassic (AD 1100-1522) Mixtec capital of Tututepec. The paleoethnobotanical data is considered in light of archaeological evidence, as well as ethnographic and ethnohistoric data, to investigate the nature of household food...
Formative Ceramic and Obsidian Transitions at Salinas La Blanca (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Salinas La Blanca, located within the coastal estuary of the Soconusco region of Guatemala, was occupied from the Early to Middle Formative periods. This was a period of considerable cultural change, as Olmec influence on the Pacific Coast waned and regional centers developed more centralized power. This paper presents the results of a chemical compositional...
Fragments of Identity: A Comparative Study of Terminal Formative Figurines from Coastal Oaxaca, MX (2018)
The Terminal Formative period (150BCE-250CE) in Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico was a time of urbanization and increasing political interaction. The Terminal Formative included the emergence of an urban center at the site of Río Viejo, which may have extended political influence over surrounding communities. During this period, on the coast of Oaxaca, ceramic figurines were a ubiquitous medium for expression and identity in political/cultural exchanges. By comparing ceramic figurines from the site of Rio...
From a Cave near Tehuacán? Reconstructing Object Histories of Looted Postclassic Mesoamerican Turquoise Mosaics (2018)
The mid-20th-century market for pre-Columbian antiquities is notoriously opaque. Riddled as this moment in the market is with stories of looting, forgery and deceit, the period between roughly 1950 and 1990 is also the era in which significant parts of today’s best-known museum collections of pre-Columbian art were formed. Because of the practices of art dealers many pieces that once formed part of the same original deposit are now scattered over the globe. Any possible information on the ...
Full-Coverage Survey in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: Broad-Scale Insights on Human-Environment Relations (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Regional survey in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico has been ongoing since 1994. Our full-coverage approach resulted in extensive spatial coverage (224 km2) spanning the valley’s major physiographic zones (e.g., floodplain, piedmont, etc.). The coarse-grained data produced via this methodology is ideal for...
Funerary Architecture in Public Space: The Case of Burial 10 at Etlatongo, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2018)
Mesoamerican architecture is characterized by its variety of forms, constructive techniques and functions through time. This can be seen in the Formative pre-urban settlement at Etlatongo, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, which was occupied from the Early Formative to the Postclassic period, where among the architectural configurations, we can find structures associated to different human activities. From all burials founded in public spaces at Etlatongo, we observed that no burial has funerary...
Geophysical Prospection of Monte Albán’s Main Plaza: An Overview of Results (2018)
During the summer of 2017, the Proyecto Geofísico de Monte Albán (PGMA) carried out a large-scale geophysical survey of the site’s Main Plaza. The survey utilized three instruments, a gradiometer, an electrical resistance meter, and a ground-penetrating radar array and achieved nearly 100 percent coverage of the plaza. Covering more than 35,000 m2, the PGMA represents the most extensive geophysical survey ever carried out in Oaxaca. This paper details the methods of the survey, examines which...
Hallazgos de la excavación de una habitación residencial de la época IIIB/IV en Atzompa, Oaxaca, México (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Avances en los estudios de la arquitectura de Monte Albán" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Atzompa, es un asentamiento satélite de las élites de la capital zapoteca, alcanzó su apogeo y población máxima durante la Época IIIB-IV de Monte Albán (500-900 dC). Al igual que en Monte Albán, el sitio parece haber sido abandonado en algún momento al final de esa época. Desde 2007, el PACMA (Proyecto Arqueológico del Conjunto...
Iconografía Zapoteca en los tableros doble escapulario de la Casa Sur del Conjunto Monumental de Atzompa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Avances en los estudios de la arquitectura de Monte Albán" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En los sistemas de escritura precolombina de Mesoamérica, la zapoteca se conoce principalmente por los diversos estudios realizados en el desciframiento de estelas, pintura mural y vasijas cerámicas que han permitido conocer importantes informaciones sobre las élites político-sociales, sus alianzas matrimoniales, rituales...
The Impact of Diet and Dental Health among the Mixtec Urban Societies from the Formative Period of Oaxaca, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present the results of a preliminary study that investigates the impact of increased social complexity on the dental health of two Mixteca Alta populations, one from the Middle Formative (850 – 400 BC.) component of the site of Etlatongo and the other from the Late to Terminal Formative (400 BC. – AD. 300) urban center of Cerro Jazmín. Our research...
The Impact of Late Classic–Early Postclassic Anthropogenic Landscape Change in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous geomorphological data from the upper drainage basin of the Río Verde suggest that demographic and land-use changes, perhaps coupled with climate change, during the Classic period collapse (ca. 800 CE) increased erosion and sediment entering the drainage system. Recent geomorphological research in the lower reaches of the Río Verde in the Pacific...
Importation, Distribution, and Crafting of Obsidian at Formative Etlatongo (2018)
The nature of the utilization of obsidian throughout Mesoamerica has long been a focus of study and topic of debate for many anthropologists. The history of lithic analysis has produced many assumptions and interpretations regarding exchange, use and control of this extremely important material. Obsidian itself, as an imported resource, might have had otherworldly properties that held a special place in the cosmological construction of the world for villagers in the Valley of Oaxaca. The power...
Infancy and Breastfeeding at Cerro Jazmín: Isotopic Data from a Late-Terminal Formative Population in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2018)
We present isotopic results from 25 adults and children from Cerro Jazmín. Bone collagen (n= 17) and bone and enamel apatite (n=21) isotopic data provide C, N, and O values describing diet and breastfeeding patterns. Carbon values suggest a narrow diet heavily based on maize and little animal protein. Individuals between 0-3 years of age had significantly higher nitrogen and oxygen values than adults, suggesting that these infants may have still been breastfeeding at the time of death. Weaning...
“International” Concepts: A Design Analysis of Yanhuitlan Red on Cream Ceramics from Postclassic Etlatongo (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cholula to Chachoapan: Celebrating the Career of Michael Lind" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While the Mixtec region of Oaxaca is famous for its polychrome ceramics, including the iconographically rich “codex style” pottery, in this paper we argue that non-polychrome ceramics also played a significant role in conveying particular messages associated with ongoing social and political rearticulations during the...
Intra-valley Exchange before the Rise of Monte Albán – New Data from Trace-element Analyses of Rosario Phase Ceramics (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Rosario phase (ca. 700-500 BCE) in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico represents the period immediately preceding the rise of Monte Abán and the earliest stages of Zapotec state formation. Relatively little is known about intra-valley interactions during this time, beyond interpretations based on settlement pattern analyses. As part of our on-going INAA program...
Investigating Public Spaces at the Urban Center of Cerro Jazmín, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The paper presents recently recovered information from excavations conducted in public spaces and open areas in the Late to Terminal Formative city of Cerro Jazmín in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca. An area thought to be a plaza located directly south to a three-mound complex (Tres Cerritos) revealed a series of constructions and...
Is the Study of Ancient Money Really So Difficult? (2018)
The difficulty that many economists and anthropologists have with studying ancient money lies with inadequate understanding of modern monetary systems. I briefly review the establishment of two currencies: the British pound in the 18th century and the US dollar in the 19th and why the establishment both currencies were political (not economic) constructs. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) economists analyze the current fiat currencies as political constructs and David Graber’s Debt: The First 5000...
I’ya Xhína Santuario de la lluvia en San Juan Luvina, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The paper is dedicated to the presentation of the archaeological site of I'ya Xhína, the « Nose Mountain », in the zapotec Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, in Mexico. The site reveals a consecration to the worship of water and rain with a ritual pond at the summit of the mountain as well as an unknown Sierra Norte Zapotec’s version of the deity Quetzalcoatl named...