Mesoamerica: Oaxaca or Southern Highlands (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (126 Records)
In the past decades, new theoretical and methodological developments in bioarchaeology and archaeology of death have allowed the exploration of age categories that are very challenging to access archaeologically: infants and older adults. Although Mesoamerican archaeology has largely used evidence for representations of aging in different sources of information (textual and iconographic) to engage in a broader consideration of funerary practices, approaches of old age as an identity category has...
Ancestors and the Power of Ruins in Nejapa and Tavela, Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Vibrancy of Ruins: Ruination Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There are numerous examples across the Nejapa region of Oaxaca that demonstrate the ways archaeological ruins retain meaning and power through time. This paper highlights ruins in the sites of Majaltepec, Los Picachos, Cerro del Convento, Hacienda San José, and the modern town of Santa Ana Tavela to show how ruined,...
Ancient Oaxaca beyond Zapotecs and Mixtecs (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I contend that the major gulf in Oaxaca archaeology is between Zapotec and Mixtec archaeology on the one hand and the archaeology of other regions and other language speakers on the other. The early focus on Zapotec and Mixtec archaeology stems from having codices written in these languages...
Ancient Pathogen Genomes from Pre- and Early Colonial Epidemics in Mesoamerica and the Evolution of Parathyphi C (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Genome wide data from ancient microbes may help to understand mechanisms of pathogen evolution and adaptation for emerging and re-emerging infectious disease. Ancient pathogen genomes provide furthermore the possibility to identify causative agents of past pandemics and therefore elucidate mortality crisis such as the early contact period in the New...
Análisis arquitectónico del conjunto Patio Hundido y sus estructuras compuestas: Edificios A y B de Monte Albán (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. Los recientes trabajos de restauración arquitectónica en Monte Albán, resultantes de los sismos de 2017, nos han hecho replantear las intervenciones realizadas por el Proyecto Especial 1992-1994. En particular, encontramos que los deterioros causados por los sismos en el Edificio A fueron exacerbados por intervenciones de esa...
Análisis de la arquitectura de tierra en el Edificio “P” de la Zona Arqueológica de Monte Albán (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. La utilización de la tierra en los sistemas constructivos es el método más probado por la historia y el más antiguo empleado por el hombre para formar sus edificaciones, ya que es un material abundante y versátil para la construcción. Los antiguos zapotecos alcanzaron un gran desarrollo de la técnica constructiva a base de...
Archaeology in the Southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca: After a Century of Explorations, What Has Changed? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will be focused on understanding how archaeology has been practiced in different ways by different people in more than 100 years of explorations in the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Also, who has produced information about the past in this region, and for whom,...
Archaic Period MRG-6 and the Deep Culinary Roots of Oaxacan Cuisine (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 rich cuisine of contemporary Oaxaca sprouted from deep roots. Archaic Period plant remains recovered from the MRG-6 rockshelter enhance prior work at Guila Naquitz and grant us insight into some of the managed and wild food plants still used in contemporary Oaxacan dishes. Over 70 different botanical taxa were identified from samples excavated at...
Building Social Complexity: Differences in Bedrock Use at Early Formative Etlatongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Construction materials such as earthen fills have frequently been an afterthought for many archaeologists interested in understanding past social relations in Mesoamerica. In this paper we reconcile this situation by assessing how the relationship between humans and materials, in regard to the use of construction fills, may have played out a significant role...
Ceramics and Community: A Yucuita Phase Ceramic Cache at Etlatongo (2018)
Feasting is a well-documented phenomenon in Mesoamerica as a means of community integration and interaction. Ceramic analysis of Op. B, Pozo 20, Feature 1 from the site of Etlatongo may point to one such feasting event at the site. This Yucuita phase (500-300 BC) feature was a primary refuse deposit of ceramic, lithic, and faunal artifacts intermixed with extremely ashy sediment, probably from a specific event. An overview of the stratigraphy of the feature and an inventory of the assemblage...
Changing Paradigms in Oaxaca Archaeology: Examining the Past to Understand Our Future (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past century, archaeology in Oaxaca had gained a reputation among American researchers as a space rife with contentious debates. On the other side of the border, Mexican researchers remained disconnected from these scholarly debates, in part because little effort was made to build a...
Coastal-Highland Interaction in Early Formative Period Mesoamerica: The Ceramic Affiliations of La Consentida (2018)
Early Formative period pottery from the site of La Consentida in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, bears indications of both local developments and interregional influences. In previous papers, I have presented stylistic evidence for interaction between La Consentida and potters from distant West Mexican traditions such as Capacha and Opeño. While some of La Consentida’s decorated Tlacuache phase vessels suggest involvement in a system of long-distance interaction along Mesoamerica’s Pacific coast, more...
Commensal Politics, Intersectional Politics: Serving Ceramics at Early Colonial Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
In this paper I present findings from recent excavations of a high-status indigenous residence at the site of San Miguel Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico. The data show that, contrary to typical expectations, frequencies of elaborate indigenous Mixtec polychrome serving wares rise considerably from the Postclassic to the Early Colonial period, rather than these ceramics being replaced by European style ceramics. Nevertheless, residents of Achiutla did indeed have access to European glazed wares, and...
Comparing Isotopic Data for Diet and Mobility of Males and Females in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
This poster presents a comparison of the isotopic data from male and female individuals interred in the lower Río Verde Valley of coastal Oaxaca, Mexico from the Early Formative period, beginning in 2000 BC, to the Early Postclassic period, ending in AD 1100. Our previous work in this region has focused primarily on broad dietary changes through time, focusing little attention on comparisons by sex. Our sample for the present study includes 54 individuals: 31 males and 23 females. These...
Connecting Dead, Living, and Supernatural through Plants: Botanical Mortuary Offerings at Monte Albán (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. This paper examines the plants used as mortuary offerings at the Zapotec city of Monte Albán (500 BCE–900 CE). After their passing, the deceased became Ancestors able to offer protection to their descendants. I explore the possibility that food (specifically plants) might have helped to provide and strengthen a bridge between the...
Constituting the Divine: Coastal Cuisine and Public Places in the Formative-period Lower Río Verde Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food was central to the constitution of sacred public spaces during the Formative period in the lower Río Verde valley on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast. Public facilities at small sites and at the region’s largest precolumbian architectural complex, the Río Viejo acropolis, were the location not only of collective food consumption but also of food...
The Corn That We Eat: Feasting on Maize and Maize Diversity in the Early Formative Community of Etlatongo, in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations at Etlatongo recovered one of the largest analyzed macrobotanical samples for Early Formative Mesoamerica. We have explored the significant richness of species identified at the site, asserting that full-time agriculture was in place in the Highlands as early as the fourteenth century BCE. Here we turn...
Cuisine Choices in Mundane and Ceremonial Contexts at a Late Classic Palace Compound in the Valley 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. In the Late Classic (CE 500 – 900), elite families in the Oaxaca Valley maintained and reinforced their elevated status through calendrical rites, where they acted as intermediaries between the community and supernatural entities associated with the agricultural cycle. These rituals served as the key components of broader festivals that likely involved...
Cultural Pluralism and Persistence in the Colonial Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico: Three Case Studies (2018)
This paper explores the interactions between multiple groups of people in the Sierra Sur region of Nejapa and Tavela, Oaxaca in trans-conquest and Colonial Mexico. Bringing together ethnohistoric accounts, oral histories, and archaeological data in Nejapa and Tavela, I highlight three case studies to show that migration, conquest, and interregional trade created a complex, dynamic, pluralistic ethnic landscape prior to the arrival of the Spanish. As such, when the Spanish colonial regime took...
Daily Life Past and Present: The Role of Relationships and Strategies in Structural Change (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The long history of research in Oaxaca, Mexico, has influenced archaeological method and theory far beyond the region. Specifically, the archaeology of Oaxaca has contributed significantly to the study of households, daily life, and transformative social change. My work at the Tilcajete...
Death and Identity at Monte Albán (2018)
Archaeologists have long striven to interpret mortuary rituals as qualitative signs of a living people--indices of sex, gender, age, status, wealth, and craft. Though the doctrine "as in life, so in death" can have some merit for archaeological inquiry, viewing mortuary ritual in this manner ignores the social act itself, which is one of the most intimate, personal, and weighted actions humans produce, serving, among other roles, to return the society to homeostasis in the wake of the loss of a...
Debating Oaxaca Historical Archaeology (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. “Prehistory is passé” write Schmidt and Mrozowski in their 2013 essay "The Death of Prehistory," and this should definitely be the case for Oaxacan archaeology. But although most scholars would agree that Oaxaca may have seen the first literary civilization in the Americas, not all would...
Designing Influence: Aesthetic Choices and Group Identity in Decorated Ceramics of Late Postclassic Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
During the Late Postclassic (A.D. 1200-1520) in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, aesthetic qualities of ceramics were utilized as both decorative values and tools for negotiating the creation of group identities and ideologies within communities. Through a stylistic analysis of Yanhuitlan Red on Cream type ceramics recovered from excavations at the site of Etlatongo, in the Nochixtlán Valley, I explore how these vessels and the motifs depicted on them were used during the creation of...
The Discovery of a New Buried Building on Monte Albán's Main Plaza (2018)
Large-scale geophysical survey was conducted at Monte Albán’s Main Plaza during the summer of 2017. The results suggest the presence of a substantial, but previously unknown, building with associated features located in the west-central portion of the plaza near Building H. In this paper, we describe our findings and present our preliminary interpretation of the geophysical data.
Dogs, Diners, and Deposition: The Social Role of Canis lupus familiaris in Cruz B Households in Etlatongo, Nochixtlán, Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents a comparative faunal analysis from two distinct Early Formative households from Etlatongo, a multicomponent site located within the Nochixtlán Valley of the Mixteca Alta in Oaxaca. The faunal remains from several different contexts were analyzed; these contexts represent routine domestic refuse and those from a...