Mesoamerica: Western (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (111 Records)
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. El sitio arqueológico de Jicalán Viejo (posclásico tardío - colonial temprano) presenta una elevada concentración en superficie de escorias de metalurgia, relacionadas con los procesos de beneficio del cobre. El...
Advances in World-Systems Analysis in Mesoamerica (2024)
This is an abstract from the "World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the refinement of world-systems analysis into the nested network model (i.e., bulk goods, political/military, prestige goods, and information), Chase-Dunn and Hall (1997) have proposed a research strategy that is applicable to ancient...
An Agate Basin Point from Michoacán, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Late Pleistocene Stemmed Points across North America: Continental Questions and Regional Concerns" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A complete black obsidian Agate Basin Point was found in a rockshelter in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, during the excavations realized by the CEMCA team. Despite the fact that the stratigraphy of the shelter had been completely disturbed, this point was found associated with a complete...
Analyses of Pastes and Polychromy of Chupícuaro Pottery: A Diachronic Comparison Using a Noninvasive Approach (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Reassessing Chupícuaro–Cuicuilco Relationships in Light of Ceramic Production (Formative Mesoamerica)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pottery is one of the hallmarks of the societies that emerged in the present-day Acámbaro Valley known as the Chupícuaro culture (ca. 600–100 BC). The aesthetic features of Chupícuaro ceramics range from complex forms of monochrome ware to polychrome varieties based on three main...
Ancient Migrations in the Aztatlán Region: aDNA Analyses (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While mounting evidence suggests that the Aztatlán tradition in west Mexico was a major cosmopolitan region during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1521), archaeologists have characterized items and beliefs as being culturally distinct from the rest of Mesoamerica. Recently, endogenous and exogenous material culture distribution has been interpreted as the...
Ancient Mitochondrial DNA and Genetic Variation in Northwest Mexican Populations (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Looking to the West: New insights into Postclassic Archaeology in Michoacán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development of genetic sequencing technology has allowed for the recovery of ancient DNA from bone samples belonging to individuals who lived thousands of years ago, opening a window to the past and to better understand the dynamics of ancient civilizations. This study describes the genetic variation found...
Análisis morfológico y químico de escorias de cobre del sitio Jicalán Viejo, en el Occidente de México (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. Este trabajo presenta los avances de la clasificación morfológica, caracterización química elemental (pXRF), y microscopía estereoscópica y óptica de las escorias de cobre recuperadas entorno a las áreas productivas...
Aportes de la prospección geofísica para entender los asentamientos en medios lacustres de la cuenca de Zacapu, Michoacán, México (2024)
This is an abstract from the "2024 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Luis Barba" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hace más de tres décadas, Luis Barba y su equipo del laboratorio de prospección arqueológica del IIA, UNAM iniciaron una colaboración fructífera con investigadores del CEMCA en la cuenca de Zacapu (Michoacán) que continúa hasta nuestros días con instituciones francesas como el CNRS y la Universidad Paris 1/Panthéon-Sorbonne. En...
Archaelogical Analysis of a Colonial Copper Smelting Furnace from Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico. (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. In 1788 the Spanish Crown wanted to evaluate the mining industry in New Spain in order to start the implementation of new technologies, change the domain and administration of the mines, and create new foundries that would help the mining industry to have more eficiency in all the processes related to this activity. That is...
Archaeometallurgy and Productive Processes: Understanding Copper Smelting Production in the Prehispanic and Colonial Site of Jicalán, Michoacán, 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. This paper focuses on the characterization of technological processes used for producing copper at the archaeological site of Jicalán Viejo, Michoacán, in Western Mexico, which includes both prehispanic and colonial...
Archeomagnetic Dating of Ceramic Potsherds of the Tingambato Archeological Site (2018)
The archeological site of Tingambato, located in the municipality of the same name, is situated between the towns of Pátzcuaro and Uruapan, in the Mexican State of Michoacan. It is located at the south of the Tarascan plateau, at the boundary between the "tierra caliente" and the cold coniferous mountain land. In order to address the issue of occupational temporality of the site, we carried out absolute archeomagnetic dating of seven ceramic potsherds found at the site, taking advantage of the...
Automatic Classification of Digital Images of Archaeological Arrowheads (2018)
Currently there exist several databases composed of hundreds or thousands of digital images of arrowheads made by different ancient ethnic groups around the world. Extracting information or comparing and classifying the elements of these databases in an efficient and automated way, even without the need of arrowhead’s metadata, would be of great help in carrying out a comprehensive study on this archaeological subject. This work deals with this problem by developing an image processing...
The Aztatlán-Huasteca Network: A Model for the Acquisition and Dissemination of Scarlet Macaws from Mesoamerica to the US Southwest/Mexican Northwest (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the long-running debate on the nature of interaction between societies in prehispanic Mesoamerica and the US Southwest/Northwest Mexico, the acquisition of scarlet macaws and their dissemination to the SW/NW has been perplexing. Questions abound as to how and why long-distance social networks were established and...
Baked In: Remnant Production Gestures from Potters in the Tarascan State (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences 2024" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We examine the traces of production gestures that ceramics producers left behind on the surface of 100 sherds excavated at Urichu, a minor administrative center for the Tarascan (P’urépecha) state (1350–1524 CE), in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, México. These sherds represent the Early and Late Postclassic time periods at the site,...
Bioarchaeological and Genetic Analysis of the Tzintzuntzan Ossuary (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Looking to the West: New insights into Postclassic Archaeology in Michoacán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster will present the first results from the bioarchaeological analysis of more than half a ton of human skeletal remains recovered from the ossuary of the ancient city of Tzintzuntzan on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. In addition to conventional morphological analysis,...
Bioarchaeological Insights into Social Resilience and Change during the Postclassic at the Ancient Purépecha City of Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico (2018)
Little is known about the impact of Purépecha Empire formation on the skeletal health and well being of communities within the core zone of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, during the Postclassic period (AD 1000-1500). Here we report on recent bioarchaeological investigation of 19 mortuary contexts from the ancient Purépecha city of Angamuco located within the imperial heartland. We have identified at least seven different mortuary treatments from Angamuco and we compare these contexts with...
Bioarchaeology of Care of Fishing Community at Tzintzuntzan, Western Mexico: A Multimethod Approach (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Tzintzuntzan, Capital of the Tarascan Empire: New Perspectives" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Otitis and mastoiditis are conditions that produce deafness and disability in the pre-antibiotic era, especially in the fishing community. This study describes lesions on temporal bones in the Western Culture from Mexico living near Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. A sample (n = 41) of temporal bones from Tzintzuntzan sites was...
Bioarchaeology of Postclassic West Mexico: A Research Framework and Preliminary Results (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past three millennia, West Mexico’s complex cultural developments and social transformations have characterized it as a unique entity pivotal in the histories of population admixture and cultural transmission, producing long-lasting effects still evident in Mesoamerica. During the Early to Middle Postclassic periods (850/900–1350s CE), polities in...
Canids in the Faunal and Iconographic Record at La Quemada: An Analysis from the Perspective of Huichol Ethnography (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The presence of canids (members of the biological family Canidae, including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes) at the archaeological site of La Quemada in Zacatecas, Mexico has been established through multiple lines of evidence, including broad representation in...
Caves beyond the Dripline: Reconceptualizing the Subterranean-Surface Dichotomy (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As cave archaeology emerged as a specialty in the 1990, an unfortunate consequence has been the reification of the distinction between surface and subterranean archaeology. We would note that there have always been problems with this dichotomy. Andrews (1970), for instance, mentions that the entrance to Balankanche Cave was in the middle...
Ceramic Production in Postclassic West Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Early/middle postclassic period, the Aztatlán tradition grew to be the most influential culture in Western Mexico, creating expansive trade networks that extended far beyond the region. Though these trade networks are one of the most well-known aspects of the Aztatlán tradition, few studies have utilized archaeometric methods to assess trade and...
The Ceramics and Chronology of the Ucareo-Zinapécuaro Obsidian Source Area, Michoacán, Mexico (2018)
Sourcing studies conducted over the past 45 years have identified obsidian from the outcrops around Ucareo and Zinapécuaro, Michoacán in archaeological sites located across Mesoamerica including San Lorenzo, Xochicalco, Tula, Chichén Itzá, and Tzintzuntzan. Archaeological investigations including survey and excavation conducted by Tulane University during the 1990s have provided the first detailed information on prehispanic settlement and obsidian exploitation within what is now called the...
Characterization of Chupícuaro and Cuicuilco Ceramics Technical Traditions: Preliminary Results (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Reassessing Chupícuaro–Cuicuilco Relationships in Light of Ceramic Production (Formative Mesoamerica)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For the last decades, the existence of stylistic similarities between Chupícuaro ceramics and those found in some Preclassic sites in the Basin of Mexico has raised questions on the nature of the interactions between these two regions. In this paper, we will present the preliminary...
Characterization Using Raman Spectroscopy of Amazonite and Turquoise of Tomb II, Tingambato, Michoacán, México (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Tingambato is located in the state of Michoacán, in a transitional zone between the highlands and the lowlands of the Balsas River. This geographical location allowed a long distance interchange...
Characterizing Purépecha Urbanism (2018)
At the time of European contact the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin (LPB) was the geopolitical core of the Purépecha (Tarascan) Empire (A.D. 1350-1520), and has long been recognized as a Mesoamerican core region . Cities were an important component of Purépecha statecraft but comparatively little is known about their general characteristics, organization, and evolution. Here I explore the use and division of space within the ancient city of Angamuco to document the development of social complexity, complex...