Intraregional Variation in the Obsidian Industry of the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin of Mexico

Summary

The Tres Zapotes regional systematic survey, conducted from 2014-2016, yielded an obsidian assemblage spanning across the Formative and into a Postclassic occupation. Furthermore, similarities and differences in technology and sources utilized were observed within the RRATZ assemblage, facilitating an examination into the intraregional variation in obsidian artifact production and use. In addition, one unusual artifact type was recovered that may reflect specialized scraping activities and that were perhaps lowland-centric. The scraper artifact possibly models a highland type that is generally attributed to maguey processing; however, the maguey plant is rare in the lowlands and the typology differs considerably in other respects as well, suggesting the scraper may have been used for processing another material, such as ixtle. This paper thus will provide a preliminary analysis of variation in the RRATZ obsidian assemblage and further investigate the potential of a lowland-centric scraper artifact within the regional polity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Charting the Evolution of the Tres Zapotes Polity: Results of the RRATZ 2014–2016 Field Seasons

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16466