Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Gulf Coast Postclassic period is something of an enigma, eclipsed by synchronic focus on the imperial Aztecs, and diachronic studies of earlier Olmec and Classic Veracruz civilizations. Tacked on as an addendum to narratives perpetuated by the Spanish, our knowledge of indigenous Gulf Coast cultures (ca 1100-1521) is a patchwork, shedding little light on the region. In his Archaeological Synthesis of Southern Veracruz and Tabasco (1965) Michael Coe laments, “So scanty is our information on the period as a whole that hardly one example of architectural construction can be ascribed to it.” And yet exploring the coastal lowlands from the Huasteca to the northwestern boundaries of southern Veracruz, Postclassic sites are abundantly in evidence. Drawing on ethnohistory, archaeology, and art, this session examines the Mexican Gulf from the Classic collapse to the onset of the Spanish invasion, with special attention to key players, groups, locations, cultural symbols and remains. From interdisciplinary perspectives of its varied sub-regions, we hope to begin compiling a new archaeological synthesis of this oft-neglected place in time.

Other Keywords
Ethnohistory/History • Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology • Mesoamerica: Gulf Coast

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • The Case of Cuyuxquihui: A Postclassic Site near El Tajín (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rex Koontz.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cuyuxquihui sits high above the Tecolutla Valley, about 20 km southeast of the site of El Tajín. The site may be dated generally to the Postclassic and is one of the larger and more complex sites from that period in the region. The relationship of Cuyuxquihui to the decline and abandonment of El Tajín has been a subject of some...

  • Chert Biface Use and Associations with the Middle Postclassic Settlements of Sauce, Veracruz, Mexico (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alanna Ossa.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chipped stone bifaces and projectile points are found within south-central Veracruz for multiple eras, but the rarer chert bifaces are significantly associated with Postclassic era settlement from the Sauce Archaeological Project and Proyecto Arqueologíco La Mixtequilla. I analyze residential inventories from the center of Sauce and its...

  • Drucker Revisited: Assessing the Postclassic Ceramic Assemblage at San Marcos, Veracruz, Mexico (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Meyer.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite advances in the last two decades, the Postclassic period remains an elusive and understudied period in the Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz. In 1940, archaeologist Philip Drucker conducted a field survey at San Marcos, a small mound center at the foot of the extinct Cerro el Vigía volcano in the Western Tuxtlas of southern...

  • No Need to Change Our Ollas: The Role of Utilitarian Ceramics in Household Cultural Transmission and Economic Adaptations During the Postclassic Period (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriela Montero.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The PAMLAS project examines the cultural continuity of indigenous populations at the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin sites of Mazapa, La Sierra, and Escobillal. This paper specifically focuses on the role of utilitarian ceramics at the household level, exploring their significance in cultural transmission during periods of economic...

  • Postclassic Settlement in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael L. Loughlin.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Classic period, the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin experienced an important demographic shift as local centers collapsed and populations fell across the region. By the Early Postclassic period, the region was largely abandoned. During the subsequent Late Postclassic period, populations began to rebound. One of the...

  • Recent Postclassic research in the Tuxtlas region of Veracruz (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcie Venter.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Long an elusive component of pre-conquest history in the greater Tuxtlas region, research conducted over the last two decades has enhanced our ability to identify the Postclassic period. Nevertheless, our understanding of variability in the expression of the Postclassic is only beginning to emerge, and with it our understanding of...

  • Reused, Repainted, and Rare: Late Postclassic Blue-on-White Ceramics in the Huasteca (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kim Richter.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Postclassic period in the Huasteca, a region along Mexico's northern Gulf Coast, is characterized by Black-on-White ceramics (Ekholm 1944). This ceramic style is widespread across the Huasteca, appearing on various vessels, from bowls to anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms. The black decoration, likely chapopote paint, is applied...

  • Sacred mountains in the Huaxtec region and the Eastern Sierra Madres. (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary E. Pye.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper analyzes the symbolism of sacred mountains as liminal portals between the realms of the Underworld and the sky deities in the Huaxtec region and the neighboring eastern Sierra Madres based on ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence.

  • Violence against Women in Mexica-Tenochca Rituals: Gulf Coast Connections? (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeanne Gillespie.

    This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A recent exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art of nine sculptures from the Huasteca depicted women dressed as warriors, ball players and governors from Classic and Postclassic sites along the Gulf Coast, suggesting that women held positions of power and prestige there. Other sculptures from the region illustrate decapitations...