Mesoamerica: Western (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (111 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This interdisciplinary archaeological study centers on Cerro de en Medio (CDEM), an ancient site in the northern reaches of Mesoamerica during the late Classic period (600-900 CE). Advanced chemical analyses of occupation floors provide insights into CDEM's activities, revealing its intricate social dynamics. The research combines this chemical analysis...
Colors in the Chupicuaro Ceramic Tradition: A Diachronic Perspective during the Late Formative (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. In Northwestern Mesoamerica, polychromy is a characteristic of Chupicuaro pottery during the Late Formative. It is the case for the hollow figures whose decoration is obtained by overlapping geometric motives painted in white and black on a red background. The figurines were also polychrome, even if the paints...
Continuity and Change in Prehispanic and Colonial Pottery Production at Tzintzuntzan (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. This poster examines continuity and change in prehispanic and colonial pottery production at Tzintzuntzan through a typological and petrographic analysis.
Creating a Digital Reference Collection for the La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A long-running project in West Mexico, the La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (LQ-MVAP) has entered the final stage of the data life cycle with a shift from long-term curation and analysis of the physical materials to an open-access digital archive with training guides for data reuse...
A Dark Horse of the Early Postclassic: The Site of El Cerrito (Querétaro, Mexico) and Its Relationship to Chichen Itza and Tula (2018)
Ever since the first attempts to explain the close correspondences (in iconography, architecture, and writing) between Chichen Itza and Tula in the Early Postclassic it has been assumed that it was mainly between these two cities, sometimes even called "twin Tollans", that the extended and intense contact between Northern Yucatan and central Mexico took place. A tendency among Mesoamericanists not to look further to the north and west, to present states such as Guanajuato and Querétaro, have...
Defining the Urbanism of the Ancient Purépecha Site of Angamuco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Purépecha site of Angamuco located in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin of Michoacán, Mexico provides an unrivaled opportunity to study the urban tradition of the Purépecha prior to the formation of the empire in the late postclassic (1350 – 1520 CE). Previously, the understanding of Purépecha urbanism relied upon analysis of the imperial capital...
Diagnóstico, registro y conservación interdisciplinaria en el Occidente de México: El caso del Ixtépete, Jalisco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "La Restauración de Monumentos Prehispánicos en México: Principios, Práctica, y Visión al Futuro" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Esta ponencia abordará las distintas exploraciones e intervenciones realizadas en el sitio arqueológico del Ixtépete, Jalisco, a lo largo del siglo XX; mismas que, si bien permitieron entender las técnicas y etapas constructivas, así como la cronología del lugar y sus monumentos, también...
Distribution Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics on the "Malpaís de Tacámbaro Site", La Garita Sector, Michoacán, México (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. In this paper we will present the results of the geostatistical analysis of the ceramics recovered during the archaeological prospecting works at Malpaís de Tacámbaro site in the La Garita sector. This is a big settlement located on top of a volcanic flow in the municipality of Tacámbaro, the south central of Michoacán....
Divine Food and the Warriors of Curicaueri (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. In the Tarascan cosmovision, feeding the gods daily, especially Curicaueri, was vital because it ensured that the world would continue to function; this food was the human sacrifice. At the foot of the platform, one of the most significant pieces of evidence of this act of surrender to the gods was found, where an enormous...
Early Animal Use in Rural New Spain: Comparing Trends and Practices in Sixteenth- to Seventeenth-Century Indigenous and Spanish Settlements from Michoacán, Northwestern Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Columbian Exchange Revisited: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Eurasian Domesticates in the Americas" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The massive introduction of European animals in what is today Mexico started in 1519 and historical documents attest for the rapid spread of livestock, in particular cattle, in the vast plains of the Altiplano that helped colonize the lands. Yet, there is a lack of...
El Arte Rupestre en el Paisaje de la Tierra Caliente Michoacana (2018)
La llamada Tierra Caliente, se ubica al sur del estado de Michoacán y abarca un extensa región que estuvo continuamente habitada desde hace miles de años. A pesar de las condiciones climáticas donde llegan a registrarse algunas de las temperaturas más altas del país, es una tierra llena de recursos naturales y fértiles tierras dentro de un paisaje de valles y sierras que han sido aprovechadas por los grupos humanos. Las fuertes condiciones y contrastes de la Tierra Caliente han llevado a...
El uso del adobe en el valle de Colima (600-900 dC) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La propuesta de trabajo abordará el uso del adobe en el Occidente Mesoamericano durante el periodo comprendido entre los años 600-900 dC, el cual representó para los habitantes del Valle de Colima, un movimiento transformador que modificó de manera radical la ideología y costumbres que hasta el año 600 dC fueron utilizadas alrededor de mil años; lo cual se...
An Empirical Analysis of Highland-Lowland Interaction in the Aztatlán Tradition (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Aztatlán tradition constituted the primary economic and cultural development during the Early/Middle Postclassic (AD 900-1350) in west Mexico. Though politically decentralized, this culture was rooted on the Pacific coastal plain and featured vast trade networks. Located 100 km inland, the Etzatlán Basin is the westernmost lake basin in the Jalisco...
Ethnoarchaeological Research of Traditional Charcoal Production in Central Michoacan, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Charcoal production along the region known as Bishopric of Michoacan, which included the modern states of Michoacan and Guanajuato, as well as parts of Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero, and San Luis Potosí, in Mexico, has changed very little since the arrival of the Europeans. The expansion of this traditional craft is linked to the development of the colonial mining...
Evidence of Early Human Occupation at "Cueva de los Hacheros", Michoacán (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 2016, Dr. Jose Luis Punzo-Díaz attended to a complaint from the municipality of Turicato regarding the rockshelter Cueva de los Hacheros. As part of Proyecto de Arqueología y Paisaje del Área Centro Sur de Michoacán, the site was excavated. During excavations, the project discovered evidence of multiple periods of human...
Experimental Investigation of Primary Copper Smelting in Central Michoacan (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. Copper was the main metal produced and worked in Mesoamerica, but data for pre-modern primary production and processing remain elusive. Systematic research at Itziparátzico, a Late Postclassic location in Central...
Exploring the Role of Fire in Tarascan Ritual Contexts of the Zacapu Basin, Michoacan, Mexico (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. Studies of ritual activities often focus on paraphernalia, architectural structures, and other aspects of performance. While these are all important features, other more subtle elements that are nevertheless crucial to these activities are often not considered in...
Extracting Copper from Sulphidic Ores: The Jicalán Viejo Smelting Site (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. Contrary to other Mesoamerican cultural and political entities, the Purépecha Empire is renowned for its remarkable development of metallurgical production. Ongoing research at the site of Jicalán Viejo involves the...
Fire and Death in the Great Platform of Tzintzuntzan, Mexico (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. Just as fire and firewood were considered very important elements in the cosmovision of the Tarascan culture, so were war and sacrificial practices. Prisoners of war were sacrificed to two types of deities, the first linked to the celestial bodies and the second linked to the earth and water. Historical sources mention that...
First Results of the “Proyecto de investigación de poblaciones antiguas en el norte y occidente de México” (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Increasing the Accessibility of Ancient DNA within Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Genomic analytical techniques have matured enough to address longstanding problems about the interactions and migrations of ancient populations inhabiting the north and west border of Mesoamerica, as well with populations from the US Southwest. With this in mind, we have established a collaborative, binational project...
From Cooperation to Competition: An Architectural Energetics Analysis of Labor Organization for the Construction of Circle 2 at Los Guachimontones, Jalisco, Mexico (2018)
The Teuchitlán culture is one of many cultures in West Mexico during the Late Formative to Classic periods (300 B.C. – 450/500 AD) that share in the tradition of burying some of their dead in shaft and chamber tombs. The Teuchitlán culture is noteworthy among their contemporaries for the large number of circular ceremonial buildings concentrated around the Tequila volcano and surrounding valleys. Los Guachimontones, located on the southern side of the volcano, is the largest site in the region...
From the Sky and from the Ground: Using Multiple Survey Strategies to Map El Palacio, Northern Michoacán (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. In this paper, I present the recent results of the archaeological surveys conducted at El Palacio, an important pre-Tarascan site located in the Zacapu Basin, Northern Michoacán. The settlement was occupied from the Epiclassic through the Colonial era, with an important episode of urbanization occurring ca. 1250 A.D. If...
Gendered Figurine Iconography at Los Guachimontines, Jalisco, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gender is one of the primary identity categories that provides structure to the social organization of societies. It sets expectations for the activities, status, presentation, and spatial organization of individuals within a community. This study aims to interrogate the social role of gender in the Teuchitlán tradition of Jalisco, Mexico, through a survey of...
Geochemical Investigation of Chupícuaro Ceramic Wares (Formative Mesoamerica) (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. In the framework of the CHUPICERAM project, we perform geochemical analyses to investigate the chemical composition of the pastes and the decorations of ceramic wares excavated from two different archaeological sites (TR6 / JR24) and assigned to two different periods (Chupícuaro /...
GIS Analysis of the Road Network at the Postclassic Purépecha Site of Angamuco, Mexico (2018)
The growing adoption of LiDAR for archaeological analysis makes determining how ancient peoples modified, interacted and moved through the landscape more practical. Initial analysis of the LiDAR produced imagery covering the Postclassic (1000-1520 CE) Purépecha site of Angamuco, located in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin of Michoacán, Mexico showed a highly urbanized multi-nucleated settlement sprawled across 26km2 of an ancient lava flow, with a complex urban structure. Here I discuss the results from...