Oaxaca (Other Keyword)
1-25 (36 Records)
While aerial photography is still widely used for the "brute force" identification of archaeological sites, multispectral remote sensing approaches hold the greatest potential for archaeological surveys because of their ability to detect hidden or subsurface archaeological remains. This poster examines Quiechapa, a small rural municipality located in the foliage covered mountains in the southwestern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, which has never before been studied by archaeologists and likely...
Arqueología y manejo patrimonial en San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca. (2016)
La zona arqueológica de Mitla ha sido en los últimos años una fuente de información arqueológica y paradigma de la conservación y manejo. Su desarrollo paralelo a las políticas publicas culturales del Estado Mexicano ha derivado no solo en un sitio arqueológico abierto al público sino una serie de eventos sociales y culturales registrados en libros y artículos, que hablan de una interacción de la comunidad local de manera profunda con su patrimonio. Este trabajo pretende mostrar el desarrollo de...
Ballgames and the Social Networks of the Sierra Sur: What Can Ballcourts Tell Us About Political Negotiation in Southern Oaxaca? (2017)
As a specially marked category of public architecture, ballcourts were both socially-integrative and socially-divisive spaces through hosting games and other important ritual activities. Moreover, research has shown that ballgames in Oaxaca acted as mechanisms of social mediation within and between different ethnolinguistic communities. The distribution of ballcourts is therefore significant and expresses underlying social and political relationships. The Nejapa region is a frontier zone between...
Ceramic Molds for Mixtec Gold: New Insights into Lost Wax-Casting traditions of Late Postclassic Oaxaca (2015)
Lost-wax casting in prehispanic Mesoamerica reached its apogee in Late Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico. Nowhere is this artistry more evident than in the spectacular gold and silver offerings from Tomb 7 at Monte Albán. Researchers have long understood the general process of lost-wax casting, but have incompletely examined variability in techniques utilized through space and time. This poster presents new evidence of ceramic molds from Late Postclassic Tututepec that are believed to have been used to...
Ceramic Paste Distribution and Market Exchange in the Tlacolula Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. (2015)
Over four decades ago, economic anthropologists recognized the importance of marketplace exchanges in the contemporary Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, but the historic roots of this region’s exchange system were less clear. Was the Oaxaca market system a product of recent capitalism, Spanish Conquest, Aztec imperialism, or were underpinnings even deeper in the past? Here, we examine INAA studies of ceramic assemblages from two Classic-period (ca. AD 200-850) sites in the Tlacolula arm of the Valley of...
Cuevas Prehistóricas de Yagul y Mitla, procesos de gestión, patrimonio cultural y su construcción como concepto en la población (2016)
A cinco años de la declaratoria de patrimonio cultural de la humanidad por la UNESCO, el sitio Cuevas Prehistóricas de Yagul y Mitla, que alberga elementos naturales y arqueológicos variados (desde los vestigios más tempranos de la agricultura en América, hasta evidencias del México porfiriano), es un ejemplo del arduo trabajo de gestión que se requiere para poder concretar un proyecto de dimensiones tan grandes. Este proceso de construcción no hubiese sido posible sin la participación e...
Diet and Migration in Coastal Oaxaca: Identifying Effects of Political and Social Collapse through the Utilization of Stable Isotope Analysis (2017)
This study reports on diet and mobility among people living in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Late Classic (AD 500-800) and Early Postclassic (AD 800-1200) periods, specifically focusing on how political and social collapse affected subsistence practices, diet, and human migration. Archaeological evidence suggests that Río Viejo, the region’s largest urban center before AD 800, experienced multiple periods of political fragmentation and instability during its long...
Domestic Production and Use of Mold-made Whistles and Figurines in Late Classic Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
Mold-made ceramic figurines and whistles are a common component of Late Classic assemblages in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, yet little is known about their ceremonial significance or context of use. Our excavation of an elite residential complex at the site of Dainzú-Macuilxóchitl yielded nearly 5,000 fragments of these ritual objects, the majority from midden deposits associated with an open stone platform that likely served as a ceremonial space for the residents. A small ceramic kiln located...
Early Formative Public Architecture and Corporate Identity in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2017)
Public spaces appeared early in Mesoamerica, often linked to emerging communal identity and/or socio-political complexity. Their construction, and subsequent maintenance and renovations, reflect the collective effort of different social actors and corporate entities. In Mesoamerica, public space first appears during the Early Formative period (1500-900 BCE), a time of emerging socio-political complexity at sites such as San Lorenzo, San Jose Mogote, and Paso de la Amada. The arrangement and...
Environment of the Valley of Oaxaca, Past and Present (1967)
Discusses the physiography, phytogeography and botany of the Valley of Oaxaca today; how effective moisture level variations are reflected in surface sample pollen records; and how prehistoric effective moisture variations are reflected in archaeological-context pollen records. Includes a supplemental report on economic pollen types observed in Archaic Period archaeological-context samples.
The Epiclassic in Oaxaca (600-900 CE) (2015)
The centuries from 600 to 900 CE were unusually dynamic times in prehispanic Oaxaca. In the Valley of Oaxaca, population increased and elite Zapotec culture flourished as city-states formed at Monte Albán, Cerro de la Campana, Macuilxóchitl, Lambityeco and Jalieza, and then suddenly collapsed. Surprising connections with the Maya area appear such as Fine Orange and Plumbate pottery as well as possible iconographic and architectural elements, some of these channeled through Southern Isthmus sites...
Evaluating the Evidence for Ceramic Exchange with the Valley of Oaxaca during the Late to Terminal Formative (2016)
In the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico, ceramics resembling those found in the Valley of Oaxaca are a common component of Late to Terminal Formative assemblages. Prior compositional analyses indicated that at least some of these wares represent actual imports, and further, that ceramic trade between the two regions was possibly two-way. More recently, our knowledge of ceramic compositional variability in the Valley of Oaxaca has expanded greatly, allowing us to refine our understanding of...
Evidence for the Emergence of Social Complexity in Early Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
The emergence of sociopolitical complexity, and its connections to other developments such as changing subsistence and domestic mobility, has been a central theme of archaeology for over a century. Mesoamerica has been no exception to this trend, and scholars of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America have scrutinized socioeconomic correlates of changing political integration and centralization. One concept central to this research has been that of hereditary hierarchical inequality. In fact,...
Formative to Postclassic Landuse Changes in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca (2017)
We provide a summary of the past ~15 years of paleoecological and paleoenvironmental analysis in the Lower Río Verde Valley. Ten lacustrine, wetland and estuarine sites throughout the valley and coastal zone were selected for sediment coring. The sediments were intensively sampled for a suite of biological and sedimentary analyses chosen to provide insight into changes in local and regional landuse. Our findings indicate initial land clearance and incipient agriculture occurred during the...
Gathered for the Feast: Community and Polity Ceremony in the Lower Río Verde Valley (2016)
Among Payson Sheets’ many contributions to archaeological method and theory is a long-term commitment to examining the actions and relationships of commoners. Taking inspiration from his work at Cerén on community ceremony, in this paper we examine collective ceremonial practices at two Terminal Formative period (C.E. 100 – 250) sites in the lower Río Verde valley of Pacific coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. The site of Yugüe, like Cerén, was a small site that was located only four kilometers away from a...
James Schoenwetter Pollen Research Papers
James Schoenwetter (Ph.D. Southern Illinois 1967) was a Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University. His research interests included prehistoric cultural ecology, applications of pollen analysis in archaeology and research methodology. Before his retirement in 2000 he directed the ASU Anthropology Department’s palynology lab. Pollen research by Schoenwetter and his students involved a variety of sites in Mesoamerica, North America and Europe. He directed archaeological and botanical...
La greca escalonada como símbolo del poder político en Oaxaca prehispánico (2017)
Debido a que la greca escalonada es uno de los motivos más perdurables y ampliamente difundidos en el tiempo y espacio mesoamericano, su significado ha despertado desde hace tiempo el interés de varias generaciones de estudiosos. Por su forma geométrica y abstracta, el signo se presta a una gran diversidad de interpretaciones. Esta presentación tiene la finalidad de acercarse al significado de la greca escalonada en objetos del arte e inmuebles en Oaxaca prehispánico mediante un análisis de...
Linguistic Archeology of the Sierra Sur, Oaxaca (2017)
In this paper the potential for productive relationships between linguistics and archeology is discussed in the context of the Sierra Sur region of Oaxaca, Mexico. The material remains of most traded goods decompose too swiftly to be studied hundreds of years after their circulation in trade networks. However, the vocabulary that describes these goods has the potential to survive in contemporary languages. Thus, comprehensive study of linguistic data can support historical and archeological...
Material Culture Change, Continuity, and Innovation at Postclassic and Early Colonial Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico (2015)
In this poster, I present results of an analysis of ceramic materials recovered from domestic contexts at the Postclassic and Colonial site of Achiutla, located in the Mixtec highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. Materials from distinct household middens corresponding to the Postclassic and Colonial periods, respectively, facilitate intra-site comparisons of domestic ceramic assemblages, providing insights regarding cultural change and continuity at the micro-level over the course of the Spanish...
Mixtec Goldworking: New Evidence for Lost-Wax Casting from Late Postclassic Tututepec, Oaxaca. (2017)
Gold jewelry and ornaments produced in Late Postclassic Oaxaca were among the finest ever made in Mesoamerica. Yet the paucity of archaeological evidence for metallurgical production in Oaxaca has frustrated efforts to better understand these spectacular objects and their role in Postclassic society. This paper presents the results of an analysis of 42 ceramic molds from the Late Postclassic (1100-1522 CE) Mixtec Capital of Tututepec. I argue that the molds were utilized to cast internal cores,...
Moctezuma, King David, and a Gentile Meet on a Mountain: Religious Factionalism and Indigenous Perceptions of Archaeological Sites, Archaeology, and Archaeologists (2015)
The state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico has long been famous for its archaeological tourism, aimed mostly towards urban-based national and international publics. But while this is also the state with the largest indigenous population in Mexico, the contemporary descendents of those archaeological and historical cultures present an important yet mostly unrecognized public whose perceptions of their own past remain poorly studied. Concomitantly, the complex relationships between cultural heritage...
Motherhood at Majaltepec: A Hypothesis Based on an Early Colonial Period Cemetery in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca (2017)
In 2011 and 2013, the Nejapa/Tavela Archaeological Project explored a possible Early Colonial period cemetery (A.D. 1550-1650) at the site of Majaltepec. The excavated portion of the cemetery included eight individuals from five burials, wherein four were sub-adults, at least one of which is likely a woman, and four were children. In spite of the overall poor preservation, it is clear that the children and sub-adults were buried together, without accompanying household members of older ages and...
Narratives of Quiechapa in light of material evidence from survey (2017)
Our knowledge of the prehispanic past of Quiechapa and the surrounding regions has been largely based on a combination of historic sources, modern day linguistic classification, and previous archaeological work in nearby regions. El Proyecto Arqueológico de Quiechapa (PAQuie) recently completed a 99 sq. km pedestrian survey of the Quiechapa region in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico. In this talk, I discuss major findings from the survey in the Quiechapa region within the context of broader...
Occupational Stress on Oaxaca’s Pacific Coast: Bioarchaeological Evidence for Specialized Task Activity at Rio Viejo (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper provides a micro-scale consideration of the broader social processes under way during the Early Classic to the Postclassic periods in the Río Verde drainage basin of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through a detailed bioarchaeological analysis, we examine individuals from Río Viejo for evidence of occupational stress, with an emphasis on select individuals who...
An Osteobiography of a Oaxacan Chontal Young Adult Female (2015)
Skeleton Sk-CV-01 is a female around 18 years of age, carefully buried in a stone cist in the Chontal Highlands of southern Oaxaca during the Late Postclassic or Early Colonial period. She is the first and only human skeleton known from controlled excavations in the area, and the archaeological context and historical documentation associate her with the Chontal people who still inhabit the region. In this presentation the results of the archaeological, osteological, and stable isotope analyses...