Tlaxcala (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
301-325 (497 Records)
Drone technology has become widely available, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive over the last four years, and archaeologists have embraced it eagerly. Apart from the technological breakthroughs of the UAV platform and its assortment of sensors, we need to interpret these data beyond the beautiful models and topographic measurements. In this paper, we use the concept of monumentality and compare three iconic sites in Central Mexico to understand how their architectural expression correlates...
The Multiplicity of Murals: Translating Landscapes 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. The murals at Teotihuacan have become a common source of fascination in the archaeology and scholarly considerations of the site. Although the site itself may need no introduction, the murals that decorate its walls have been studied with a level of uncertainty. Often depicting complex and abstract...
Multiproxy Approach to Identify Pottery Contents in Postclassic Xochimilco, Mexico: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Prehispanic Foodways (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican food has been studied for years, and although much is known about many of the native practices and ingredients, the archaeological study of food in Mesoamerica is still developing and we are learning that we know far less of it than we thought. For this research, we applied a multiproxy approach, that involved the use of GC-MS, starch grain...
Music and Sound Practices in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Puebla/Tlaxcala Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than a means for communication, sound, and music contributed to the formation of identities in the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley during the Late Postclassic to early colonial period. In particular, sonic assemblages contain multisensorial data that can be used to identify how knowledge and musical practices are shared among communities. These...
Natural and Anthropogenic Effects on Coastal Environments along the East Cape of Baja California Sur, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Changes to coastal environments from natural and anthropogenic factors have influenced human subsistence and settlement patterns throughout the Baja California peninsula. These changes are visible both in the archaeological record and present-day human settlements. We discuss long-term human-environment...
Natural Corridor or Challenging Route? Rethinking Pre-Hispanic Communications across the Pacific Coast of Guatemala (2018)
The Pacific coast of Guatemala has long been regarded as a natural corridor that facilitated travel and trade, and served as a route of migration and invasion, connecting eastern Mexico, the Guatemalan highlands, and El Salvador, with further regions of Mexico and Central America. At first glance, the natural configuration of the coast seems to provide unobstructed passage, especially when compared with the rugged terrain of the adjacent highlands. The maps in many publications feature vague...
The Nature of Leadership and Community Cohesion at Postclassic Xaltocan, Mexico (2018)
Immediately after the consolidation of the Aztec Empire, Itzcoatl, the king of Tenochtitlan, ordered the destruction of the ancient codices from newly incorporated territories. By erasing these alternative histories, Itzcoatl paved the way for the construction of an official imperial history that bolstered the political aims of Aztec leaders. Nearly a century later, a second wave of erasures occurred when Spanish conquerors destroyed indigenous books and idols in an effort to eradicate...
Near-Surface Geophysics in Jicalán, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Near-surface geophysics has been widely used as a tool to determine the distribution of objects at depth with archaeological targets. To identify more specific objects, such as ovens and associated structures, the...
A Network Model of Co-Rulership and Community Ritual in Teotihuacan: From Neighborhoods to Districts (2018)
Experts remain divided about the nature of the sociopolitical system of ancient Teotihuacan, which was one of the earliest and largest urban civilizations of the Americas. Excavations hoping to find compelling evidence of a powerful dynasty of rulers, such as a royal tomb, keep coming away empty-handed. However, the alternative possibility of a corporate or collective government, perhaps headed by a small number of co-rulers, also remains poorly understood. A third option is that the city’s...
The New Adventures of Old Ceramic Figurines from Tres Zapotes, Mexico (2018)
The long-term exploration of Formative fluorescence within the Veracruz region of Mexico has been supported through mid-20th century archaeological excavations and collection management protocols of the Smithsonian Institution’s Natural History Museum Department of Anthropology. The Olmec site of Tres Zapotes has been a focus of archaeological investigation since 1938 by Smithsonian’s Bureau of American Ethnology Director, Matthew Stirling. Research at the site continues to explore the regional...
A New Gauge: More on Formative Period Textiles and Technologies (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While considerable research has been conducted on the importance of textiles in Classic and Postclassic Mesoamerica, little study has been done on textiles among Early or Middle Formative period cultures, mainly due to scanty preservation. As noted in previous research, however, depictions of...
New Isotopic Research from the La Ventilla Neighborhood of Teotihuacan: Demography, Migration, and Diet of Two Socioeconomic Groups (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The neighborhood of La Ventilla in the city of Teotihuacan was extensively excavated in the 1990s, during which the largest skeletal collection was recovered at this great urban center. However, it was not until the last several years that stable and radiogenic isotope analysis were conducted on a large-scale at this site. New strontium and oxygen isotope...
Night Falls on Tenochtitlan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cortes escaped from Tenochtitlan on "La Noche Triste" in the summer of 1520, but many in his entourage did not – a Mexican woman awake in the night saw them heading across the causeway to the mainland and roused the city to pursue them. The intruders had been under siege by the Tenochca, whose daytime prowess as...
Nomadic Charters: Mimicry and Heterotopia in the Nahua Festival of Quecholli (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Anthropological discourse has placed concerted attention on the role of “axis mundis” in configuring Mesoamerican socio-cosmology. However, in this paper, I highlight the emphasis that many Central Mexican creation-foundation narratives placed on alterity rather than centrality in rendering the boundaries of altepetl “communities.” Nahua cartographic...
Not Only an Archaeological Rescue: Canal de Ohtenco, Case Study of Iztacalco’s Agricultural System (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. "Chinampas" typically are associated with Xochimilco’s agricultural system. However, recent work by INAH’s ‘Dirección de Salvamentos Arqueológicos’ was undertaken at Iztacalco due to modern population growth. Iztacalco is 15 km from Xochimilco but no information existed about the preHispanic population or the site’s economic activities. Therefore, this...
An NSF Broader Impact Story in the Teotihuacan Valley of Mexico: 60 Years in the Making (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. For many, the “broader impact” of a grant proposal frequently involves outcomes that will happen somewhere between immediately and the next five years. Yet, the scope of the broader impact is often unexpected, unknown, and/or will take place many decades later. In 1960, when Eric...
Obsidian across the Formative-Classic Period Transition at Teotepec, Veracruz, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "El principio del fin, el inicio del principio: Arqueología de la transición del Formativo al Clásico en Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper focuses on obsidian at the site of Teotepec, Veracruz, Mexico. Specifically, we discuss importation and consumption patterns during the Formative-Classic period transition (Late Formative to Early/Middle Classic period). Overall, the...
Obsidian Artifacts from La Venta and Sources in Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the late 1960s, Heizer and colleagues at UC-Berkeley began to use X-ray fluorescence to measure chemical fingerprints for obsidian artifacts from a number of sites in Mesoamerica. In their study of obsidian artifacts from the Olmec site of La Venta, they found that 93% of the artifacts were explained by five distinct...
Obsidian Exchange and Political Change: Shifting Patterns of Obsidian Use Across the Late Classic and Postclassic at Fracción Mujular (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fracción Mujular is a small domestic settlement located on the slopes of Cerro Bernal near the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Founded under the auspices of the Early Classic center of Los Horcones, Fracción Mujular was occupied for nearly one thousand years, persisting through the Collapse of Los Horcones and entering into a period of rapid expansion during...
Obsidian Exchange and Use in Early Formative Chalcatzingo (2018)
In the Middle Formative, Chalcatzingo was one of Highland Mexico’s dominant settlements. At its peak, Chalcatzingo had a well-developed obsidian blade technology and established lines of trade with the Gulf Coast. Chalcatzingo’s role in the exchange of obsidian in earlier periods is less well understood. This paper combines geochemical sourcing and technological analysis of an Early Formative obsidian assemblage from Chalcatzingo in order to elucidate this role. Geochemical sourcing enables a...
Obsidian Exploitation and Access in the Eastern Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico (2018)
In this paper, we present the results of technological and visual sourcing analyses of over 1000 obsidian artifacts collected by the Proyecto Arqueológico Piedra Labrada (PiLab), directed by Dr. Lourdes Budar. The PiLab area of study, the eastern Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, includes the eastern flanks of the Sierra de Santa Marta and the adjacent coastal plain along the Gulf of Mexico, and has a long sequence of Prehispanic occupation. Despite this, and almost a decade of regional...
Obsidian Importation and Use at Teotepec, Veracruz, Mexico: Situating Site-Level Lithic Activities within a Regional Context (2018)
In this paper, I present new data on lithic production, consumption, and importation from the site of Teotepec, a large pre-Hispanic settlement located in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas region of Veracruz, Mexico. Like much of the Mexican Gulf Coast, the Prehispanic inhabitants of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas relied on non-local obsidian for most of their lithic needs. Using the results of recently completed technological and visual source analyses, I identify differences in production and consumption...
Obsidian Processing and Distribution in Classic Period Lower Cotaxtla Basin, Veracruz, México (2018)
During the Classic period (1st mill. CE), South Central Veracruz was a mosaic of microstates in which obsidian was scarce but available to everyone. Semi-intensive systematic survey in 400 km2 of the lower Cotaxtla basin showed occasional concentrations that led to propose two alternatives: state-controlled workshops obtaining and redistributing artifacts to resident population, or independent workshops servicing clients across borders, implying the existence of a market-based economy. Chaîne...
Obsidian Production and Consumption Practices at Matacanela (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Olmec Manifestations and Ongoing Societal Transformations in the Tuxtlas Uplands: A View from Matacanela" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Matacanela’s chipped stone assemblage overwhelmingly is dominated by nonlocal obsidian, including both products and by-products of multiple reductive technologies. Overarching temporal trends and classification of Matacanela’s obsidian assemblage have previously been discussed within...
Obsidian Technologies at the La Magdalena Site in the Eastern Bajio of Guanajuato, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists attribute many possible connections between the Bajío and Basin of Mexico during the Formative through Postclassic periods. Elemental analysis of obsidian from the site of La Magdalena (Q-25) in the eastern Bajío region of Mexico both support and challenge different aspects of these connections. Excavations conducted by Beloit College in 1958...