Interaction and Exchange in Late Postclassic Xoconochco

Summary

Xoconochco is located along a well-travelled transportation route that links what is today Central and parts of Southern Mexico with Central America. The region has had cultural and economic ties with its neighbors to the north and to the south for millennia, a pattern that continued into the Late Postclassic period. In this paper we examine the nature of Xoconochco’s involvement in Mesoamerican exchange systems in the Late Postclassic period. We know that Xoconochco’s forest resources—particularly cacao—were found as far away as the Valley of Mexico and beyond, that obsidian from Central Mexico and the Guatemalan highlands was used in Xoconochco homes, and that some residents had access to metal goods produced in West Mexico. Here we focus on ceramics and what Neutron Activation Analysis can tell us about where the ceramics found in Late Postclassic Xoconochco communities were produced. Analyses currently underway will bring our sample to almost 200 sourced sherds, and these data, together with the data for obsidian and metal goods and the documentary evidence will allow us to better understand patterns of interaction and exchange in Late Postclassic Xoconochco.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Maya Highland and Pacific Coast Archaeology: New Data, Debates, and Directions, Part 2

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13226