Tlaxcala (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
176-200 (497 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 2" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Large-scale female terracotta sculptures were extensively produced in the Mixtequilla region of Veracruz during the Late Classic period. It is likely that numbers of these sculptures were looted and smuggled into the United States prior to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property. This paper focuses the female terracotta...
A Fettered Serpent? Quetzalcoatl and Classic Veracruz (2018)
Great is the conflation of Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl and Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: a mythical player in the world creation of Mesoamerican groups vs. a semi-historical personage who presaged the arrival of Hernán Cortés. Veracruz, a region implicated via the activities of both avatars, is particularly enmeshed in this duality. The Postclassic narrative whereby Quetzalcoatl journeyed to the Gulf lowlands appears to be foreshadowed in the desacralization of Teotihuacan’s Feathered Serpent Pyramid at the...
Fifty Shades of Gray . . . Obsidian: A Tale of Supply, Demand, and the Ties that Bind at Xaltocan, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In central Mexico, where obsidian was the primary tool stone used by Indigenous peoples, one can get a good sense of sources by separating green obsidian (from Pachuca) from gray obsidian (from Otumba, Ucareo, and several other sources). Compositional analysis can further clarify the gray sources....
Financing the Domestic Economy: A Study of Craft Production and Technological Change in Central Mexico (2018)
Studies of technological change often leave unasked how people finance their adoption of new technologies, focusing instead on concepts of risk and uncertainty. The means of finance—whether by surplus production, saving, assuming debt, sharing costs, or other mechanisms—depends on the particulars of the economy in question and can have systemic and long-term consequences for adopters. To show why finance matters in explanations of technological change and how archaeologists can study it, this...
First Results of the Archaeological Prospection at the N2E1 and N2E2 Quadrants (Barrio del Río San Juan) at Teotihuacan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the years 2017–2020, the UNAM and the University of Barcelona carried out an international and interdisciplinary project in the N2E1 and N2E2 quadrants of Millon’s map at Teotihuacan (Barrio del Río San Juan). This very central location had not been deeply investigated until then. The project aimed to...
The Flaked Stone Economy of Los Mogotes: Access and Exploitation during the Epiclassic Period (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study examines the flaked stone economy at the Epiclassic site of Los Mogotes, located north of the Basin of Mexico in central Mexico. We quantified obsidian and chert artifacts based on form and material in order to examine the nature of the regional lithic economy during this time. The findings suggest were dependent on long-distance exchange for...
Flayer and Flayed Figures in Central Veracruz, Mexico: Is It Xipe? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 2" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The god Xipe Totec has been mostly analyzed from Postclassic evidence (Toltec and Aztec). He is recognized by the representations of a person wearing the skin of a flayed victim or the victim himself. While both types of figures appear in several regions of Mesoamerica, their contexts vary. In this paper I will review Classic and...
The Flower World in Central Mexico After the Collapse of Teotihuacan, AD 600-900 (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. During the tumultuous Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), several smaller polities in Central Mexico and the Gulf Coast rose to prominence in the wake of the collapsed metropolis of Teotihuacan. Although this period is often characterized by rampant militarism, wide-ranging economic activities,...
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...
Flowers in the Religious Ideology of Contemporary Nahua of the Southern Huasteca (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. Flowers are a central feature of religious rituals among today's Nahua of the southern Huasteca. They are associated with the sun, growing corn, life-giving water, the bounty of the living cosmos, and ancestors who visit their relatives during Day of the Dead. For the Nahua, flowers are far...
For Richer or Poorer: A Comparison of Residential Mobility Patterns between Socioeconomic Groups at the La Ventilla District of Teotihuacan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations from the La Ventilla 1992-1994 project resulted in the recovery of over 400 individuals across four apartment compounds or frentes, the common household structure at Teotihuacan. Of these compounds, Frente 2 (El Conjunto de los Glifos) has been identified as a higher-status residential community while Frente 3 (El Conjunto de los Artesanos)...
Forgery of the Past: The Scientific Analysis of the Codex Cardona and the Assumed Lost Relaciones Geográficas of Coyoacán and other Villas of Mexico City during the First Half of the Seventeenth Century (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. Multiple fragments of the so-called Codex Cardona began to circulate among street markets, boutique bookstores, and art galleries of Mexico City, the USA, and Europe between 1970 and 1980. It is estimated that this large format manuscript has 800 pages and 300 colorful plates...
Formation and Chronostratigraphy from Unit UE1, Tocuila Archaeo-Paleontological Site, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Current Zooarchaeology: New and Ongoing Approaches" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Based on the findings of extinct animal remains in Tocuila, Municipality of Texcoco, State of Mexico, in 1996, a study of a large Late Pleistocene deposit was initiated, excavating an initial unit (UE1), 30 m2 and 3.35 m depth, located on a deltoic paleochannel in the old lacustrine riverbank, which eventually was filled up by a series...
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...
Formative Communities of Practice and Disjunctures in Southern Gulf Lowland Interaction with Central Mexico (2018)
Recently Stoner and Pool called for an "Archaeology of Disjuncture" to refocus attention on variation in intra- and interregional interaction, illustrating the approach with the case of the Classic period of the Tuxtla Mountains in southern Veracruz. In this paper I extend application of the disjunctive approach into the Formative Period of the southern Gulf lowlands, focusing primarily on interactions with Central Mexico, and incorporating a Communities of Practice perspective on the formation...
Framing Unequal Boundaries: Women, Queens, and Gender (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Gender in Archaeology over the Last 30+ Years" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the landmark 1986 “Blood of Kings,” kingship has been a central theme in the archaeology, iconography, and epigraphy of the ancient Americas. Despite recent discoveries, the topic of women rulers remains ancillary to the larger view of male-dominated social and political power. During the past 30 years, roles of women have been...
From Collective Government to Communal Inebriation in Ancient Teotihuacan, Central Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A simulation model of Teotihuacan’s hypothetical collective government has shown that a highly distributed network of leaders could have been effective at ensuring social coordination in the city by means of consensus formation. The model makes a strong prediction: it indicates that this collective mode of government would have been most effective in...
From Neutral to Mutual: A Long-Term Perspective on Human-Rabbit Relationships in Highland Mexico (2018)
Studies of human-animal relationships provide insights into multiple issues relevant to archaeological research, including changes in human-environmental interactions, subsistence strategies, and socio-cultural dynamics. This presentation investigates the relationship between humans and rabbits (cottontails and jackrabbits), which were among the most commonly consumed animals in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Focusing primarily on the settlement of Teotihuacan in the Basin of Mexico during the...
From Storage Boxes to Research Options: Cataloging Collections at ASU's Research Lab in Teotihuacan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At Arizona State University’s (ASU) Research Lab in Teotihuacan, Mexico, countless boxes represent almost limitless opportunities for research. As the initial director, George Cowgill generously provided archaeologists with free storage space. However, decades have since passed without appropriate oversight, organization, and documentation. This means that...
From Tlacolol to Metepantle: A Reappraisal of the Antiquity of the Agricultural Niches of the Central Mexican Symbiotic Region (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. With the benefit of a culture-ecological mindset and thousands of man-hours spent in the then still extensive countryside of the Basin of Mexico, The Book devoted many pages to the discussion of traditional farming techniques, potential maize yields, and abandoned agricultural...
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...
Function Follows Form, Part II: Experimental Archaeology with Formative Period Mesoamerican Greenstone Tagelus Shell Facsimiles as Textile Tools (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many Formative period Mesoamerican greenstone artifacts are readily identifiable as ornaments, as they have clear counterparts in both form and function in later cultures. Other such artifacts, however, have proven puzzling to scholars, who initially categorized them as “miscellaneous objects,” “objects of unknown use,” or “implements for...
Geochemical Analysis of the Soils and Floors of Ancient Activity Areas at the Site of Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
Soil and floor samples from the ancient activity areas of Etlatongo were sampled and concentrations of extractable P and chelate extractable heavy metals. The relative concentrations of these elements have been shown to delineate areas of food preparation, consumption, and waste disposal. Increased heavy metal concentrations are indicative of the use of paints and pigments or the working of mineral ores. Low levels of these elements are usually present at sleeping areas and at high traffic...
Geophysical Prospecting of the Teotihuacan Subsoil (2024)
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A geophysical study was carried out on the eastern flank of the Pyramid of the Sun to define the continuation of a tunnel discovered in 1974 under the western entrance of the pyramid. The investigation was carried out in the vicinity of Las Varillas cave, a structure excavated by settlers to obtain construction materials employed to build the...
Geophysical Prospection at Plaza of the Columns Complex, Teotihuacan (2018)
Geophysical techniques used in Plaza de las Columnas Complex, Teotihuacan has been successful to locate the buried remains of foundations, walls and other architectural features. As usual, magnetic gradiente allowed to recognize linear patterns that suggests the wall remains usually made with volcanic stones with mud mortar. Electrical resistance was successful to recognize the presence of floors and verify the previously detected walls. Finally georadar survey verify the location and depth of...