Mesoamerica: Gulf Coast (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alberto Ortiz Brito.

This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation addresses the relation between archaeological patrimony and collective memory using the San Martín Pajapan (SMP) monument as a case study. The SMP monument is an Olmec monument found on the top of the San Martín Pajapan volcano of Los Tuxtlas region. According to ethnographic research done in the 1960s, the local...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Tate.

This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most elaborate tomblike deposits at La Venta may commemorate a female ritualist, possibly a midwife. This paper explores the contents and surroundings of Tomb C and relates them to the widespread imagery of women and pre-birth humans at this Middle Formative ritual and pilgrimage site. It uses analogies with Mixe ritual as evidence for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Sears.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nathan Wilson. Philip Arnold.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael D. Glascock. Kylie Gannan. Thomas R. Hester.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriela Montero. Nathan Wilson. Lourdes Budar.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nathan Wilson.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alejandro Pastrana. Annick Daneels. Silvia Domínguez.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shayna Lindquist.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karl Taube.

This is an abstract from the "Decipherment, Digs, and Discourse: Honoring Stephen Houston's Contributions to Maya Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among the most striking signs of Olmec iconography is the "double-merlon," this being a horizontal form supporting two parallel, upwardly projecting tabs. This presentation examines and discusses where it appears in Olmec imagery during the Middle Formative period (1000-400 b.c.), stressing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Wendt. Kenneth Peters.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the Olmec region, resources such as basalt, asphalt, cacao, kaolin clay, and hematite pigment are available in discreet areas. This uneven distribution of raw materials has led some scholars to suggest that Olmec leaders controlled the sources of raw materials and regional trade, from which they derived their economic and political power. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alanna Ossa.

I analyze residential inventories from the center of Sauce and its hinterland in combination with regional settlement data from Barbara Stark’s Proyecto Arqueológico La Mixtequilla (PALM I, II) to describe the structure of exchange, production, and consumption of obsidian chipped stone during the Middle Postclassic period (AD 1200-1350) in south-central Veracruz, Mexico. Previous research on obsidian production found a spatial association with Sauce, which could support political administration...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Mollenhauer.

This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gulf Olmec sculpture is renowned for the cultural, political, and aesthetic precedents it helped to establish in preconquest Mesoamerica. Often its legacy is discussed in relation to the artistic traditions of succeeding civilizations that emerged to the south and west of Olman. However, there has been little recognition of the impact...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marimar Becerra Alvarez.

En la zona este de Los Tuxtlas se ha identificado un complejo sistema de intercomunicación fluvial y marítima, construido a partir del aprovechamiento y acondicionamiento de corrientes acuáticas. Una gran parte de estas vías de comunicación confluyen en el sistema portuario de la costa este de Los Tuxtlas. La región se caracteriza por estar en un abanico aluvial, por lo que presenta un gran dinamismo fluvial, es decir los causes no son estáticos en el tiempo. En los estudios arqueológicos debe...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Xochitl Leon Estrada.

Síntesis de una investigación arqueológica que se enfocó en analizar y comparar la morfología del paisaje cultural de antiguos asentamientos prehispánicos en la sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México. Combinando aspectos de la geografía cultural, procesualismo, y unidades de paisaje geomorfológico se pudieron describir y analizar sitios arqueológicos en Los Tuxtlas, así como discernir las posibles dinámicas de agencia y adaptación del medio ambiente, uso del espacio y aprovechamiento de los...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aarón David Piña Martínez. Annick Jo Elvire Daneels.

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. En la actualidad, la visita a las zonas arqueológicas está determinada por un recorrido establecido por cuestiones de conservación y disfrute. Sin embargo, la movilidad dentro de las ciudades prehispánicas estuvo organizada por el diseño urbano, y su desarrollo a través del tiempo,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cherra Wyllie.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For more than eight decades, numerous ritually interred figurines and skeletal remains have been found in Classic Veracruz architecture. These caches contain tableaus of small, medium, and large-scale ceramic sculpture in conjunction with primary and secondary burials, and deposits of dismembered human bones. Ceramic figures enact scenes depicting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rex Koontz.

This is an abstract from the "Beyond Maize and Cacao: Reflections on Visual and Textual Representation and Archaeological Evidence of Other Plants in Precolumbian Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The presence of maguey in key iconographic programs at the major Classic Veracruz site of El Tajín has been explained largely through a hypothetical pulque cult at the site. This presentation will both extend and debate this interpretation of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriela Montero.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous investigations in the region known as the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, have proposed the existence of a "Postclassic Paradox" in which Late Postclassic prehispanic communities identified in 16th century historic documents cannot be identified archaeologically. In this poster, I expand on this idea and propose that...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kim Richter.

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. The Feathered Serpent was one of the principal Mesoamerican deities before the Spanish Conquest. During the Epiclassic and Postclassic periods, the cult dedicated to this ancient deity, associated with wind, fertility, and rulership, became firmly established within an international elite...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amilcar Vargas. Álvaro Brizuela Absalón.

The Pre-Hispanic city of El Tajin (Mexico) was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992. Late on in the same decade UNESCO encouraged State Parties to foster "informed awareness on the part of the population… whose active participation [in conservation]…is essential". Using the Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures method (REAP) on fieldwork in Mexico, this paper aims to contrast global and local policies to improve participation of local communities generally and in particular of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Mollenhauer.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For decades debate among Formative scholars has raged over whether to classify Gulf Olmec societies as archaic states or chiefdoms; yet scholars on both sides have assumed that these societies were governed by elites under the jurisdiction of a single hereditary ruler. Stone monuments in the form of altar-thrones, stelae, and—most particularly—colossal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Pool. Michael Loughlin.

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican Population History: Demography, Social Complexity, and Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past three decades the Gulf Lowlands of Mexico have witnessed an explosion of systematically collected archaeological survey data. The Gulf Lowlands, however, present particular challenges for the collection of data, reconstruction of local population histories, and comparison among datasets...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alberto Ortiz Brito.

San Martín Pajapan is one of the most important and prominent volcanos that constitute Los Tuxtlas mountain system of the Gulf Coast of México. From the Preshipanic period to the present time the San Martín Pajapan volcano has been considered a natural place of the landscape with cultural significance, which is indicated by the presence of archaeological remains on its summit. The most remarkable archaeological element of this volcano is a monumental Olmec sculpture, which iconographic...