Mesoamerica: Oaxaca or Southern Highlands (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (126 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Past studies of early urbanism in Formative Oaxaca, Mexico, have highlighted evidence of the construction of monumental architecture, increased population densities, and the expansion of Middle to Late Formative period occupations onto defensive hilltops. In the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, investigations at urban centers, such as Cerro Jazmín, Monte Negro, and...
Early/Middle Formative Pottery Production and Exchange in the Emergence of Social Complexity in the 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. Multiple lines of evidence, including pottery production, multicrafting, goods and routes of exchange, architecture, and funerary practices, support the idea that Tayata in the Mixteca Alta was immersed in social transformations observed across different regions during the Early/Middle Formative (ca. 1400–350 BC). Changes at this...
El manejo del agua en Monte Albán-Atzompa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La recolección y almacenamiento de agua pluvial es una de las prácticas más antiguas en Mesoamérica. La investigación arqueológica en diversos sitios ha permitido la identificación y documentación de sistemas de canales, depósitos subterráneos, galerías filtrantes y almacenamiento en recipientes, el sistema de desagües y el más común que son los depósitos...
El paisaje del Yuvui Tayu de Ñuu Ndaya, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El yuvui tayu (reinado) de Ñuu Ndaya o Chalcatongo fue uno de los más importantes durante la época precolonial en la Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca. Esto lo sabemos gracias a los códices precoloniales y a los documentos coloniales. En el 2008 y 2016 realizamos dos recorridos arqueológicos de superficie en la parte norte de esta región, estos nos permitieron...
El sistema de desagües del Juego de Pelota 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 recolección y almacenamiento de agua pluvial es una de las prácticas más antiguas en Mesoamérica. La investigación arqueológica en diversos sitios ha permitido la identificación y documentación de depósitos subterráneos, depósitos a cielo abierto, almacenamiento en recipientes y más común el sistema de desagües. En Monte Albán...
Ethnoarchaeological Survey in Santo Domingo Tonaltepec, Oaxaca (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. The Tonaltepec Ethnoarchaeological Project focused on one of the few surviving pottery-producing communities in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca. The project investigated whether Tonaltepec’s contemporary tradition of pottery production can be traced back to prehispanic times. To do this, we conducted ethnographic...
Exchange, Crafting, and Subsistence at Early Formative Period La Consentida (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Early Formative (2000–1000 B.C.) period in Oaxaca is generally regarded as a transitional period from the Archaic (7000–2000 B.C.). The early formative is characterized by a change in subsistence, social organization, and sedentism. This period included the emergence of La Consentida, the earliest known settled village in coastal Oaxaca. This paper...
Feasting and Performativity at Late Formative Etlatongo (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous research on feasting in antiquity has demonstrated the importance of surface appearance and vessel form to interpret the performative aspects of rituals such as feasts. As part of the hosts’ strategies, of particular importance are vessels that invoke exotic imagery and/or outside groups through iconography and or aspects of overall vessel design....
Feathered Serpents of the Oaxacan Isthmus and Pacific Coast, Mexico: Hybridity, Ritualized Environments, and Territorial-Narratives (2019)
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...
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...
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 ...
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...