Cerro Magoni: A Link Between Epiclassic Tula and the Bajío?

Summary

In recent years, scholars interested in the processes and events involved in the formation of the Toltec state have turned their interest toward links that might have existed between the area immediately surrounding Tula Grande, the civic-ceremonial center of the Toltec state, and sites in the Bajío region to the northwest. Although several material culture affinities have been proposed to demonstrate possible ethnic and economic ties between these areas, investigators have not arrived at a general consensus regarding the chronology and significance of these links. Recent work at Cerro Magoni, a hilltop Epiclassic site near Tula Grande, can provide a fresh perspective on these questions with new information on the timing of Epiclassic settlement near Tula Grande. Additionally, Magoni demonstrates unambiguous material culture similarities with sites to the northwest that will enable researchers to ask more sophisticated questions of the economic, political, and ideological factors involved in the movement of population and consolidation of power that led to the foundation of the Toltec state. In this paper, I review the newly available data from Magoni and discuss its implications for the regeneration of complex society in the Tula region after the decline of Teotihuacan.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Reconsidering the "Epic" in the Mesoamerican Epiclassic Period Part 2: Interregional Interactions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage