Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic (Other Keyword)
251-275 (276 Records)
Thirty years ago, investigations in the city of Las Milpillas in the Malpaís of Zacapu, provided unprecedented insights on the origins of Late Postclassic tarascan social organization. One was the highlighting of a unique kind of urban organization upon lava flows ; as in all four tarascan cities of the Malpaís. Yet, unlike its counterparts, Las Milpillas specificity resides in the fact that a site portion lies upon older volcanics, providing arable lands at hand for the city dwellers to use....
Thread Production in Ocotelulco, Tlaxcallan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological excavations undertaken by the Tlaxcallan Archaeological Project have recovered an important sample of spindle whorls from Late Postclassic – Early Colonial (1420 -1540 A.D.) domestic contexts in Ocotelulco, a subsection of the urban site of Tlaxcallan, Mexico. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of identified whorl...
Tlaloques, Tiemperos, and Trees: Cultural Models of Nature in Central Mexico (2018)
Abundant water-related art and architecture produced by Teotihuacanos and Mexica-Aztecs in the central Mexican highlands coupled with the rhetoric of today’s farmers from the same region regarding the catastrophic impacts of changes in local seasonal rainfall patterns make it clear that access to rainwater has always been a crucial factor for agricultural success in the semi-arid highlands of central Mexico, especially in communities that lack a reliable water source for irrigation. We collect a...
Tlaxcallan Pottery Manufacture and Restricted Networks (2018)
The debate whether pottery sherds equal people or just their ideas has been ongoing since the days of pioneers such as Ford and Spaulding. The advent of new technologies has given a new wind to old debates in which the questions surrounding pottery styles are examined more closely to determine their origin. Compositional analysis has been especially helpful in shedding new light on the relations between artifacts and people. Compositional analysis carried out on Postclassic Tlaxcallan pottery...
Toward a Typology of Late Postclassic Period Figurines from Tututepec, Oaxaca, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, we present a preliminary typology, description, and discussion of ceramic figurines from Late Postclassic period (CE 1100–1522) Tututepec, a regional capital located on the coast of Oaxaca. The figurine sample is primarily drawn from household excavations carried out in 2005 and 2022 but also includes material curated...
The Transformations of the Sacred Spaces Linked to the Ancestors in Mitla, Oaxaca: A Historical and Phenomenological Perspective (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. This paper presents an investigation on how the transformations of rituals and spaces linked to ancestors have occurred in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, from the Late Postclassic to the present. The spaces known as the Grupo de la Iglesia and Grupo del Calvario are addressed, both with antecedents from prehispanic...
Tree Resin in Mesoamerican Religion: Blurring Ontological Boundaries in Ceremony and Beyond (2024)
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. Copalli (copal) is an aromatic tree resin and a central figure in Mesoamerican ceremonies. Produced from various species of the Bursera genus, copalli is understood as the blood of trees and can be molded into figures or burned into thick...
Tridimensionality, Multimediality, Polychromy, and Other Forms of Visual Complexity in Late Postclassic Mosaic Art (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. Building on previous works that led to the definition of various stylistic families within the corpus of Late Postclassic central and southwestern Mexican mosaics, the paper explores the various formal and technological resources that each group of mosaics employed to attain specific forms of visual complexity....
Tzintzuntzan Archaeological Site: An Approximation to Its Astronomical Orientations (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ways to Do, Ways to Inhabit, Ways to Interact: An Archaeological View of Communities and Daily Life" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation focuses on the astronomical orientations at the Tzintzuntzan archaeological site. This research progress presents our data from fieldwork: firstly, the measurements of azimuth and elevation from architecture alignments; second, the process of date calculation; and third,...
The Tzotzopaztli as a Sacrificial Instrument in Religious Ceremonies of Prehispanic Nahuas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sixteenth-century written sources, codices, and archaeological findings from the Templo Mayor Project have provided historians and archaeologists good tools for the study of instruments used for sacrifice and self-sacrifice among the ancient Nahuas. Frequently found among them are flint knives, maguey...
Un acercamiento al pensamiento simbólico de los Huastecos, siglos XV y XVI (2018)
Definir una región tan antigua y compleja como la Huasteca, implica conocer las características de los grupos humanos que la habitaron; en ella existen diversas manifestaciones culturales a través del tiempo; en esta ocasión presento un primer acercamiento al mundo simbólico que encontramos durante el período Posclásico. Inicié el estudio utilizando cuatro indicadores arqueológicos: Vasijas de cerámica, Concha labrada, Pintura Mural y Escultura. Lo primero que hice fue reconocer los símbolos que...
Una perspectiva sobre el empleo del barro cocido en el beneficio del cobre: Caso de Jicalán Viejo, Michoacán (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. Jicalán Viejo, es uno de los sitios prehispánicos donde se han encontrado vestigios de escoria metálica asociada al proceso metalúrgico del cobre. Al igual que las escorias, el barro utilizado en la manufactura de...
Una síntesis de la historia prehispánica de Michoacán (2018)
El avance de los estudios arqueológicos realizados hasta el momento permiten delinear ya un panorama general de la historia prehispánica en Michoacán desde aproximadamente 1500 aC hasta 1522 dC. En esta ponencia presentaré una síntesis de dicha historia, vinculando la información de Michoacán a la de otras regiones colindantes con el fin de distintguir los rasgos particulares de diversas zonas pero identificando también las tendencias generales de desarrollo que se dieron a través del tiempo.
An Underground Home for Earthly Beings. Reconstructing the Archaeological Context of a Lot of Mesoamerican Mosaic Encrusted Artifacts in the National Museum of the American Indian Collections (2018)
The National Museum of the American Indian holds a lot of Mesoamerican mosaic encrusted wooden masks and shields bought in 1921 from Carl A. Purpus, who stated they were found in a cave near Acatlán, Puebla (Mexico). The presentation, besides including a brief description of the artifacts, it is aimed at reconstructing the objects’ unknown contextual information through a comparison with similar objects held in American, Mexican and European museums, some of them proceeding from scientifically...
Unveiling the Artisan Secrets of the Lapidary Goods from the Great Temple of the Aztecs (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent studies have demonstrated that the cultural provenance and diversity of the goods found in the offerings from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan are more complex than the archaeologists thought, overlapping their acquisition by tribute, exchange, war prizes, or looting. In the case of the...
Urban Landscapes in Late Postclassic Western Mesoamerica: A View from Angamuco, Michoacán (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When Cristóbal de Olid arrived in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán c. 1522 CE, he encountered the powerful king (irecha) of the Purépecha (Tarascan) Empire who controlled approximately 75,000 km2 of western and central western Mesoamerica. Never defeated by the Mexica, the Late Postclassic (1350-1530 CE)...
Urban Political Systems in the Huaxtec Region: Large-Scale Settlements and Royal Sculpture (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation we explore political arrangements, settlement organization, and urban dwelling in northern Veracruz during the Postclassic Period. We use the spatial distribution of royal Huastec sculpture, and its placement within the sites. We aim to address Huastec cities and urbanism at the local level.
Using LiDAR to Map an Ancient Purépecha Water Management System in ArcGIS (2018)
Recent applications of LiDAR technology at the Late Postclassic city of Angamuco, located in the heartland of the ancient Purépecha Empire in modern day Michoacan, Mexico are allowing for the identification and analysis of urban features in innovative ways. A complex system of constructed water management features consisting of reservoirs, sunken plazas, and connective canals were a vital form of infrastructure that were required for the movement of water across the dynamic landscape upon which...
Victims of Mesoamerican Royal Funerals: Companions of the Dead or Sacrificial Victims? (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. Since the seminal studies by Alain Testard, there has been debate over the function of victims in royal funerals in different parts of the world. In the case of Mesoamerica, did the wives, servants, dwarves, slaves, and other immolated individuals serve as “companions of the dead,” as “belongings” of the deceased...
War Milpas: Wetlands and Institutional Agriculture during the Late Postclassic in Tlaxcallan, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes: Archaeological, Historic, and Ethnographic Perspectives from the New World / Paisajes: Perspectivas arqueológicas, históricas y etnográficas desde el Nuevo Mundo" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Antigua Cienega de Tlaxcala is an area of wetlands located at the core of the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley in central Mexico. Historically, these marshlands have been exploited agriculturally using drained field...
Water, Creation, and Celestial Phenomena at La Casa de las Golondrinas, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La Casa de las Golondrinas is a Mesoamerican sacred rock art and pilgrimage site located in the southern end of the Antigua Valley in the central highlands of Guatemala near water sources and routes of travel. Recently, mapping efforts have found that the natural site, 500 m long, was culturally structured...
What Lies between the Dots: Exploring the Archaeology of the Broader Basin of Mexico Landscape (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 2" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Basin of Mexico survey established a diachronic palette of settlement locations that has served as the baseline for a wide range of studies. But settlements only comprise the nucleus of the most visible form of past human activities. A wide range of activities, agrarian and...
Where is Camaxtli? Assessing the Iconography of Tlaxcallan Collective Government (2018)
Scholars have acknowledged, for many decades, that Late Postclassic Tlaxcalla (n1250/1300-1519 A.D.) was a state level political entity ruled by a form of collective government having Camaxtli as its main patron deity. Both conceptions are constantly reproduced in academic work although they derive explicitly from sixteenth century historical sources. Unfortunately, few works have undertaken the task of contrasting colonial writings against archaeological evidence in order to test if such...
Where Text Meets Trowel: Using an Integrative Approach to Consider Internal Sociopolitical Dynamics at Postclassic Etlatongo (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cholula to Chachoapan: Celebrating the Career of Michael Lind" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca is fortunate to have an impressive corpus of pre- and postconquest ethnohistorical sources that have been the focus of intensive academic scrutiny. Yet, emphasis on these sources provides an incomplete picture where only the histories of polities mentioned in the texts are taken as central, often to...
Women Who Create and Feed the Gods: Female Priestly Work in Mesoamerica and the Andean Area (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper aims to study the role played by female characters presented in the Mexica and Inca religious hierarchy in a comparative perspective. In first case, we mention the cihuamocexiuhzauhque, the "women who fast for a year," (Mazzetto 2017, 2020) while in the second we refer to the acllacuna. The activities carried out by these ritual specialists...