Shifting Domestic Economies at Postclassic Period Moxviquil: Insights from Ceramic Petrography

Summary

The Early to Late Postclassic Period transition brought substantial changes to the political and economic organization of many regions of Mesoamerica. For the networked polities of highland Chiapas, these changes included substantial decreases in population at existing monumental centers; the establishment of new political centers in several principal highland valleys, and the establishment of an expansionary Chiapanec state in the Central Depression, centered on the city of Chiapa de Corzo. This paper examines the evolution of domestic economic organization at the highland political center of Moxviquil throughout the Postclassic period. In particular, we focus on changes in the production of utilitarian ceramic wares in Moxviquil’s domestic assemblages, including vessel forms, clay sources, firing techniques, and tempering processes. Ceramic petrography highlights the technological choices made by household producers of ceramic vessels throughout the Postclassic period. Most strikingly, we observe shifts in the acquisition of resources, including clays and nonplastic inclusions such as sand, volcanic ash, and crystalline calcite. A contrast in the production techniques for the dominant medium- and coarse-wares in Moxviquil’s domestic assemblages may suggest multiple, contemporaneous production communities within the local area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Local Responses to Regional Integration in Postclassic Mesoamerica

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14304