Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Epiclassic period, from about 550 to 850 CE, was a time of extraordinary social, political, and economic change in central Mexico. The Teotihuacan state had broken down, its governing institutions dissolved, and the population of its capital diminished to a fraction of its former size. The release of Teotihuacan’s grip over the surrounding region transformed a formerly consolidated subject territory into a fractious sociopolitical landscape coping with instability and conflict. However, this was also a time of remarkable innovation, growth, and resilience, as people moved, formed new communities, restructured networks of exchange, and adopted novel practices and institutions. In this symposium, we present recent and current research that examines these changes through diverse lenses, including everyday practices and material culture, landscape use and modification, and the sociopolitical and spatial organization of communities. Archaeological, biogeochemical, geophysical, and paleoethnobotanical research focusing on settlements near Teotihuacan and in surrounding regions will be discussed.

Other Keywords
Highland Mesoamerica: Classic • Political economy • Collapse • Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic • Migration • Chronology • Diet • Survey • Paleoethnobotany • Urbanism

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • North America (Continent) • Hidalgo (State / Territory) • Colima (State / Territory) • Queretaro (State / Territory) • Michoacan (State / Territory) • Mexico (State / Territory) • Morelos (State / Territory) • Jalisco (State / Territory) • Nayarit (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Aspectos de aprovisionamiento y uso de la obsidiana en Chicoloapan Viejo, un asentamiento Epiclásico en la Cuenca de México (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ricardo Leonel Cruz Jimenez. Jose Luis Ruvalcaba Sil. Edgar Casanova González. Mayra Manrique-Ortega. Luis Barba Pingarron.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En el marco del "Proyecto arqueológico Chicoloapan viejo" de la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison, se discuten aspectos de vida comunitaria y regional en el sitio de Chicoloapan Viejo durante su ocupación epiclásica (550-850 ec). A partir del estudio morfo-tecnológico de la obsidiana y del...

  • Ceramic Chronology in the Absence of a Horizon (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Angela Huster.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I present an initial ceramic seriation for the Epiclassic site of Chicoloapan Viejo, in the southern Basin of Mexico, with a discussion of issues particular to periods of political fragmentation. I demonstrate that two phases can be distinguished at Chicoloapan Viejo, based on...

  • "Closed by Refurbishment": A General Overview of Teotihuacan from Classic to Epiclassic Times (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Natalia Moragas.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The aim of this paper is to do a general overview of the different archaeological processes identified in Teotihuacan in the last years of the Classic to Epiclassic period. In a space between the crisis of the Teotihuacan political and ideological power until the reorganization of new players in...

  • Creating the Pax Tolteca: Diversity, Autonomy, and Centralization from the Epiclassic to the Early Postclassic Periods in the Northern Basin of Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Morehart. Angela Huster. Dean Blumenfeld. Eunice Villaseñor Iribe.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper studies the role that economic and ecological diversity plays in the establishment of communities, the maintenance of sociopolitical autonomy, and the centralization of regional state power. We focus on the transition from the Epiclassic period in the northern Basin of Mexico, a time...

  • The Epiclassic outside of the Basin: Measuring Population and Settlement Dynamics in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bianca Gentil.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Shared characteristics between settlements create the archaeological classification of the "Epiclassic" in central Mexico. These characteristics include rise in militarism, increase in long-distance networks, the upswing in regional centers vying for power, and a boost in art, architecture, and...

  • Geophysical Studies in the Archaeological Site of Chicoloapan, Estado de Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Luis Barba. Jorge Blancas. Agustín Ortiz. Ricardo Cruz. Sarah Clayton.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we present integrated archaeological and prospection data from Chicoloapan, in the Estado de Mexico, generated by drone aerial photo, topographic survey, electric, magnetic, and georadar techniques. These data result from three years of research by the Proyecto Arqueológico...

  • Imported Imperialism: The Impact, Aftermath, and Lasting Political Legacy of Teotihuacan in the Maya Lowlands (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jerald Ek.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The nature of Teotihuacan influence in the Maya Area has been a topic of enduring controversy. A growing corpus of evidence indicates direct political intervention by Teotihuacan across the Maya Lowlands starting in 378 CE facilitated through links with the Mutal Dynasty of Tikal. Emulation was...

  • Isotopic Diet and Migration at Chicoloapan Viejo, Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Freiwald. Sarah Clayton. Kaedan O’Brien.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chicoloapan grew and prospered after the decline of Teotihuacan, but little is known about the Epiclassic population that lived there and elsewhere in the Basin of Mexico. An isotopic and osteological analysis of six individuals recovered from salvage and archaeological contexts provides a...

  • Life after Teotihuacan: Everyday Practices and Community Formation at Chicoloapan, Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Clayton.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Epiclassic period (550–850 CE) in central Mexico is widely viewed by archaeologists as a time of instability, violent conflict, and large-scale migration. The collapse of Teotihuacan left a fractious and decentralized sociopolitical landscape in its wake—a situation that contrasted starkly...

  • Reconstructing Land-Use and Socio-environmental Change at Epiclassic Chicoloapan Using Plant Macroremain Analyses (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Elliott. Yoanna Herrera-Santos.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Chicoloapan Viejo represents a long-term occupation that spanned multiple cultural phases, each associated with changes in population size, settlement pattern, and sociopolitical organization. These changes were also accompanied by climatic fluctuations of varying intensity. This...

  • Return to Hacienda Metepec: Exploring Continuity and Change at Teotihuacan (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marion Forest. Andrew Somerville.

    This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological research in central Mexico has examined the transformations of prehispanic communities during the Epiclassic period (AD 550–850) from the perspective of Teotihuacan’s neighboring settlements and peripheral regions. Less attention, however, has been given to the concomitant...