Mesoamerica: Oaxaca or Southern Highlands (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (126 Records)
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. What role do ruins play in the lives of descendant peoples? Surrounding the small mountain pueblo of San Antonio La Baeza are numerous ruins dating to different time periods. For example, below the modern pueblo are large, deep rockshelters that have been occupied from the Late Formative up until today and are covered in...
Rural Exchange Networks in Postclassic Oaxaca (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1523, Spanish colonizers, alongside their native allies and African slaves, arrived in Nejapa to find people already relatively accustomed to the social upheaval brought about from foreign entries into their territories. During the Late Postclassic, Zapotec and Aztec armies had followed...
Santuarios Mixtecos de origen precolonial: Una herencia viva (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. El tema de los santuarios y paisajes sagrados de origen precolonial en Ñuu Savi o Mixteca lo he estado investigado desde la arqueología, antropología, los códices y documentos coloniales. También han sido fundamentales las experiencias y aprendizajes que he tenido en diferentes rituales mixtecos. De esta manera, en esta plática me...
Skeletal Health and the Impact of Agriculture within the Mixtec Population from Etlatongo, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca during the Middle Formative (2018)
Sedentism and agriculture had major impacts on early human societies by increasing social complexity. Some scholars attributed an intensification of inequalities to a greater dependency on agriculture. This dependency, consequently lead to decreased health status of the non-elite/rulers population. Our goal is to address the overarching question of, how did agriculture impact ancient societies? And specifically, does the emergence of agriculture correlate with decreased health? Therefore, we...
Spatial Analysis and Community Organization at Iglesia Gentil (San Pedro Teozacoalco), 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. Between 2013 and 2017, archaeologists used GPS units to map Iglesia Gentil, a prehispanic mountaintop site in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico. In addition to thousands of agricultural and residential terraces, more than 750 structures were recorded along with ancient roads, platforms, patios, and surface artifacts. In this paper,...
Spatial Analysis of an Ancient Mixtec Capital in Oaxaca (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chiyo Cahnu, a Mixtec mountaintop capital, is unusual in relation to the archaeology of Oaxaca because it is larger than normal for Postclassic settlements and apparently was inhabited for a short length of time. Mapping a one square kilometer area of the capital using powerful GPS devices between 2013 and 2017 revealed about 370 building sites, almost 2,400...
State Formation and Economic Integration: New Perspectives from Ceramic Sourcing in the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico (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. The two occupations at Tilcajete, El Mogote and El Palenque, offer a unique perspective on the political and economic changes surrounding the rise of Monte Albán. Located in the southern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca, El Mogote was an important Rosario phase (700–500 BCE) community that grew in size and political importance during the...
Sustainable Urbanism in the Mixteca Alta: Was There Ever Such a Thing? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers that study pre-Hispanic urbanism in the Mixteca Alta often remark that the region today is eroded and sparsely populated. Places that in the past supported urban populations in the tens of thousands today seem to struggle to sustain a few hundred. Some have called this the Mixtec paradox. Research on the...
Swamp People: Landscape Building in the Ciénaga de Zimatlán, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes: Archaeological, Historic, and Ethnographic Perspectives from the New World / Paisajes: Perspectivas arqueológicas, históricas y etnográficas desde el Nuevo Mundo" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Valle de Zimatlán, in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, is considered to have been a key zone for agricultural production during the prehispanic era, especially within the Río Atoyac’s floodplain. However, its...
Taphonomic Examination of the Skeletal Collection from Etlatongoa, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2018)
Recent excavations at the Middle Formative (850 – 400 BCE) site of Etlatongo, in the Mixteca male bearing striking red stains on the anterior cranium. These findings may suggest alteration of remains associated with burial rituals. However, human remains may be modified through several post-mortem taphonomic effects, including: trauma, rodent activity, discoloring, staining, cultural modification, interment rituals, damage throughout archaeological investigation procedures, biological and...
"Teposcolula Viejo, Yucundaa, Oaxaca", Un proyecto Novedoso e Interdisciplinario, Modelo de Co-Participación Gubernamental y Privada en México (2018)
En el año 2004 comenzó el Proyecto: "Teposcolula Viejo, Yucundaa, Oaxaca", en el sitio arqueológico de Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula, una antigua ciudad mixteca sede de uno de los señoríos más poderosos de la época prehispánica en Mesoamérica, que recibió la incursión de la conquista española y tuvo que transformarse completamente; y esta transición cultural se muestra en los hallazgos arqueológicos. Este proyecto dirigido por los Doctores Nelly Robles (INAH) y Ronald Spores (Vanderbilt...
Tipología lítica para Cerro Jazmín, 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. Se presenta la primer tipología de artefactos líticos de Cerro Jazmín, Oaxaca. Identificamos una industria lítica basada en silex, con artefactos especializados. Logramos identificar las etapas del proceso de talla que se llevaban a cabo en el sitio. Se propone que la industria lítica para el periodo más temprano presenta menos...
Tools for Change: Food Preparation Techniques during State Formation at the Tilcajete Sites (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cooking and eating are practices with cultural significance beyond sustenance. Understanding foodways during times of sociopolitical transformation can provide a window into how people foster, resist, and mediate social change in daily life. The context in which food is produced, prepared, consumed, and shared provides insight into people’s changing...
Toward a Typology of Late Postclassic Period Figurines from Tututepec, Oaxaca, Mexico (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. In this paper, we present a preliminary typology, description, and discussion of ceramic figurines from Late Postclassic period (CE 1100–1522) Tututepec, a regional capital located on the coast of Oaxaca. The figurine sample is primarily drawn from household excavations carried out in 2005 and 2022 but also includes material curated...
Toward an Ideology of Mesoamerican Ritual Sacrifice: An Interdisciplinary Approach (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As a cultural adaptive strategy, ritual sacrifice throughout Mesoamerica has had multiple purposes including providing a sense of control over the forces of nature aimed at attaining desired outcomes, especially those related to agricultural production. When human sacrifice was involved, such...
Trabajos de Conservación Arquitectónica en el Sitio Arqueológico de San Pedro Nexicho, Colaboración INAH-FAHHO-Comunidad (2018)
La conservación del patrimonio arqueológico en la región de la Sierra Norte del estado de Oaxaca, representa un gran reto debido entre otros aspectos a su entorno geográfico, a cuestiones del ámbito social que se relacionan con el arraigo a sus costumbres y tradiciones; y más aún, a la falta total de antecedentes sobre trabajos previos de conservación sobre el patrimonio cultural local. En esta ponencia se presentarán los trabajos de intervención para la conservación y restauración de los...
An Underground Home for Earthly Beings. Reconstructing the Archaeological Context of a Lot of Mesoamerican Mosaic Encrusted Artifacts in the National Museum of the American Indian Collections (2018)
The National Museum of the American Indian holds a lot of Mesoamerican mosaic encrusted wooden masks and shields bought in 1921 from Carl A. Purpus, who stated they were found in a cave near Acatlán, Puebla (Mexico). The presentation, besides including a brief description of the artifacts, it is aimed at reconstructing the objects’ unknown contextual information through a comparison with similar objects held in American, Mexican and European museums, some of them proceeding from scientifically...
Untangling Shifting Social Agendas at Colonial Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I draw on both archaeological and documentary evidence from the site of San Miguel Achiutla, in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico, to examine the complex relationships that residents of this indigenous community had with colonial Spanish rule. At certain points, members of the community harassed...
Utopia through the Kaleidoscope: The Colors of Silk in Colonial Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Polychromy, Multimediality, and Visual Complexity in Mesoamerican Art" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following the arrival of Europeans to the New World, one of the most fascinating early exchanges of knowledge and technology that ensued was the introduction of the silk industry to Mexico. While in some places this was unsuccessful and/or short-lived, particularly in Oaxaca, it flourished for the better part of a...
What Happened on Monte Albán’s Main Plaza? Insights from a Socio-Spatial-Sensory Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite increasing scholarly interest in the role of plazas in prehispanic Mesoamerica, we still have a relatively incomplete understanding of what actually occurred in such places. In this paper, we address this vexing question for the Main Plaza at Monte Albán in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our study draws on data from recent fieldwork on the Main Plaza, including...
Where Text Meets Trowel: Using an Integrative Approach to Consider Internal Sociopolitical Dynamics at 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. The Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca is fortunate to have an impressive corpus of pre- and postconquest ethnohistorical sources that have been the focus of intensive academic scrutiny. Yet, emphasis on these sources provides an incomplete picture where only the histories of polities mentioned in the texts are taken as central, often to...
The Work of Feline Bones and Feline Imagery at Early Horizon Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico (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. Large felines play crucial roles in origin narratives, cosmologies, and political authority in Mesoamerican societies, yet actual faunal remains and feline imagery are uncommon for the Early Horizon, from 1400 to 1000 cal BCE, especially in the highlands. Feline imagery appears in the stone sculptural corpus of the Gulf Olmec...
Yuzanu 36, a Late Archaic Site in the Mixteca Alta (2018)
We report the discovery and excavation of a site radiocarbon-dated to 3000 BC near the village of Yanhuitlan in Oaxaca. The site is buried under alluvium at a depth of 5m. At the time of its occupation it was situated on the floodplain of a large seasonal stream. The excavation of 30m2 revealed several superimposed features, including hearths, small refuse pits, and a bell-shaped pit. Debitage of different varieties of chert is ubiquituous, as is heat-spalled rock of different lithologies....
Yuzanu 50, An Early Paleoindian Site in the Mixteca Alta (2018)
Yuzanu 50 was discovered during a reconnaissance of the headwaters of the Yuzanu River as a scatter of debitage eroding from a barranca cutbank, from a palaeosol formed under wet meadows that lined the stream from the Terminal Pleistocene into the Holocene. Excavations exposed 15m2 of an occupation surface buried 13.5m below modern ground surface. An excavated assemblage consisting almost exclusively of biface reduction debris made of materials that crop out further upstream indicates that this...
Zapotec Funerary Rites as Documented by Alfonso Caso: Mining Archival Materials to Understand Ancient Ritual Behavior at Monte Albán (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The precolumbian site of Monte Albán in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, presents a continuing challenge for scholars because the earliest scientific excavations at the site, conducted in the 1930s by noted archaeologist Alfonso Caso and his collaborators, were only partially published. This is particularly disappointing since many of the tombs of Monte Alban were...