Michoacan (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
326-350 (477 Records)
The Highlands of North Center and Western Mexico were occupied from the lithic period as testify paleo Indian vestiges (Clovis and Agate Basin points) found in several sectors. From the beginning of Holocene, only the excavations of some sites allow to recognize typological characteristics and to know how the archaeological material change through time. In this presentation, I will examine the available data, in particular the cases of the States of Querétaro and Michoacan, to show the...
Paleoindians from the Basin of Mexico: How do they fit in the early peopling of the Americas? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Basin of Mexico is important in the debate on the early peopling of the Americas because several well preserved Paleoindian/Preceramic individuals have been found in the lake sediments/volcanic deposits surrounding the Late Pleistocene Lake. They include: Peñon Woman III,...
Parallel Lives: Aztec and European Elite Marriage Patterns in the Late Postclassic/Renaissance (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The European conquest of the Aztec Empire was eased by strong parallels in Aztec and European courtly behavior in their respective (and contemporaneous) chronological periods, the Late Postclassic (1430–1521) and Renaissance (various dates, 1300s to about 1600). Elite marital...
The People's Response to Change: Settlement Patterns During the Classic-Postclassic Transition in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, Mexico (2018)
The Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley in Central Mexico went through significant settlement, economic, and political shifts during the Classic-Postclassic transition, yet there is no clear picture of what happened during the Epiclassic (600-900CE) or the Early Postclassic (900-1250CE) outside of large primary sites such as Cacaxtla and Cholula. A multi-faceted study was developed to target this issue, with a particular focus on rural sites that supported known large centers. Since the early years of...
Petrographic Perspectives on the Ceramic Complexity in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin (2018)
Archaeologically known ceramic pastes from the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico, involved long-lived paste recipes that have been identified both visually and via neutron activation. This paper focuses upon Late Postclassic Tarascan state-period ceramics (AD 1350-1525) and contextualizes new petrographic data within the regional geology and prior research in order to assess aspects of the longevity and complexity in potter’s paste choices within the basin.
Playing with Your Food to Feed the Masses: A Zooarchaeological Perspective at Teotihuacan, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Animals are invariably integrated into the intricate makings of human culture, providing material evidence to reconstruct ancient urban foodways that influence and structure sociopolitical identities, practices, and ideologies. We explore the concept of production and...
Political Economy in Neighborhood Public Space at Angamuco, Michoacan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ways to Do, Ways to Inhabit, Ways to Interact: An Archaeological View of Communities and Daily Life" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper looks at changes in the relationships between elites and commoners in neighborhood public spaces at the site of Angamuco, Michoacan, Mexico, drawing from a combination of Marxian political economy and collective action theory. The study uses a combination of viewshed analysis,...
POLLEN, PARASITE, PHYTOLITH, AND ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION (XRF) ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES FROM LA ALBERCA ROCKSHELTER, MEXICO (2018)
La Alberca Rockshelter is a highland cliff painting site located in the Tancítaro volcanic range foothills, Michoacan, Mexico. The site exhibits Mesoamerican motifs on the primary rock panel, while Archaic motifs are distributed throughout the cliff walls. Excavations at the rockshelter recovered obsidian flakes, an obsidian arrowhead, a smoothing or polishing rock, faunal remains, and a human skeleton. The burial included grave goods, and upon further excavation, it appears to have been...
Polychromy in Nahua Art (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. Through the analysis of several examples of Nahua artistic expression, including the mural paintings of Tlaxcala, the Borgia Group codices, and a wood sculpture encrusted with mosaic, this paper aims to demonstrate that the societies of Late Postclassic central Mexico cultivated a strong interest in polychromy,...
Population Structure in the Valley of Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest (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. Cultural processes connected the various regions throughout Mesoamerica. Increased long-distance trade, political alliances, imperial conquest, and spread of religious ideology in the Valley of Mexico facilitated more migration over time. City nucleation to important economic, political, and...
A Possible Sculptural Tradition in Eastern Michoacán and Western State of México (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in South Central Michoacán México, Ongoing Studies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scant attention has been paid to the past of the current border of the states of Michoacán and Estado de México, though there has been a proposed local archaeological traditions for the region in order to understand archaeological contexts. There are archaeological data about large carved stone sculptures which can lay the...
Potting Communities on a Purépecha Landscape, Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Step by Step: Tracing World Potting Traditions through Ceramic Petrography" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Documentation of the chaîne opératoire allows us to investigate the manufacturing steps that transform raw materials into finished products. Study of these steps can facilitate discussions about the intentions of ancient potters and potter communities of practice. In western Mesoamerica during the Late...
The Power of Blade Stones in Postclassic Mesoamerica (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the present discussion, I will focus on mutually constitutive relationships between people and the material world, specifically on gestational dynamics, suggesting that by stone flaking and stone chipping, children (of stone) were fabricated. From the womb of the earth, which is very much a stony...
Preceramic Cultures of the Basin of Mexico (2018)
The period from early peopling until the appearance of pottery in the basin of Mexico is poorly known despite its importance to know the emergence of the early sedentary communities and the development of the first political centers in the area. This study summarizes the state of knowledge about hunter-gatherer communities in the basin and presents recent studies that have allowed us to expand our knowledge of this period, particularly for the so-called Archaic period. We highlight the profusion...
Prehispanic chinampas at El Japón, Xochimilco: Structure and Chronology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Japón in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco (Mexico City) was a Postclassic-Early Colonial chinampa community, previously reported and partially surveyed by Lechuga (1977), Parsons et al. (1982, 1985), Ávila López (1995) and González (1996). In 2013, investigators from the...
A Preliminary Chronology of Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in Cabo Pulmo National Park, Baja California Sur, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present the results of our preliminary analysis of the archaeological resources in Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP), Baja California Sur, Mexico. Since 1995, CPNP has yielded evidence for ecological recovery of marine resources, although long-term prospects are still in question. As important are the cultural resources in the park and surrounding area,...
A Preliminary Recontextualization of Lithic and Exchange Chronology of Coxcatlan Cave within the Tehuacan Valley, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, Coxcatlan Cave has drawn renewed attention for its early regional chronology and centralized location as a nexus point for interregional exchange. However, its importance for understanding shifting patterns of exchange and resource acquisition within the Valley of Tehuacan has yet to be explored. This research draws upon the data gathered...
A Preliminary Study of Epiclassic Human Mobility at Cerro Magoni in Tula, Mexico Using Stable and Radiometric Isotope Analyses (2018)
In this poster, we present preliminary mobility data for ten individuals recovered from the summit of Cerro Magoni, an Epiclassic (ca. AD 600-900) hilltop settlement in Tula, Mexico. For decades it has been hypothesized that the Tula area may have experienced an influx of immigrants from northwestern Mexico during the Epiclassic period, and that these newcomers played an important role in the rise Tula Grande. Results presented here provide an important step forward towards testing the long-held...
A Preliminary Study of Epiclassic Human Mobility at La Mesa in Tula, Mexico Using Stable and Radiometric Isotope Analyses and Radiocarbon Dating (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this poster, we present preliminary mobility data for individuals recovered from La Mesa, an Epiclassic hilltop settlement in Tula, Mexico. For decades it has been hypothesized that the Tula area may have experienced an influx of immigrants from northwestern Mexico during the Epiclassic period, and that these newcomers played an important role in the rise...
Preservation, Degradation, and Contamination: The Chemical Identification of Cochineal in Archaeological Environments (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although cochineal has played an important role in Mesoamerican societies, a lack of suitable methods has hampered its investigation by archaeologists. Luckily, recent developments in organic residue analysis suggest the possibility that cochineal production may be identified in the archaeological record through identification of carminic acid, its primary...
Previous Material Entanglements and the Rise of the Aztec Empire (2018)
Precisely dated household middens at the Aztec site of Xaltocan suggest that Aztec imperial matter—decorated serving vessels imported from Tenochtitlan and small spindle whorls used to produce tribute cloth, for example—often predates imperial formation and expansion by nearly a century. In this paper, I consider the analytical purchase we might get in explaining this puzzling finding by considering literature from the material turn; Khatchadourian, Bauer, Kosiba, and others have recently...
Production and Exchange of the Earliest Ceramics in central Mexico (2018)
Compositional studies in central Mexico have largely focused on serving wares of the later Teotihuacan and Postclassic periods. Studies of the region’s earliest ceramics of the Formative period have been almost completely ignored. The earliest ceramics made in the region tend to be much coarser than the later serving wares, so we cannot use the existing reference databases to source them. Here we build the Formative reference database with a large sample of chemical and petrographic data...
Production in Urban Spaces: Lithic Production and Economic Organization at La Corona, Guatemala (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Urban Question: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of urban spaces have often relied on specialized production as a marker of urbanism. More recently, our understandings of production activities in urban environments have been used to understand the variety of activities that occurred within these spaces and the ways in which they...
Provenance Analysis of Tempering Materials using Quantitative Petrography in the Formative Basin of Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramics sourcing studies in the Basin of Mexico suffer from the interior drainage problem. Sediment erodes from the mountains and mixes as it drains inward toward the lake at the center. Material composition, and the ceramics made from them, grades subtly over space as a result, making provenance analysis difficult. In a prior...
Pueblo de Indios: Syncretic Art and Architecture in the Negotiation of Indigenous Identity (2018)
In the years immediately following the conquest of the Aztec empire by the Spanish crown, there was a period of transition in which acculturation, adaptation, and/or adoption of new configurations of political powers, religion, and social structures ushered in the Colonial period in Mexico. One of the results of the encounter between indigenous and Spanish cultures is the syncretism that developed in the art and religious architecture of this region. Studies of syncretic art in colonial Mexico...