Charting Long-Term Social Stability in the Tres Zapotes Region: Theory, Method, and Settlement Patterns

Summary

In 2014 we initiated the Recorrido Regional Arqueológico de Tres Zapotes (RRATZ) to implement the NSF-funded project, "Long-term Social Stability in the Tres Zapotes Region." The goal of this project was to better understand the resilience of a tropical lowland polity through a millennium of political, economic, and environmental challenges, to document the preconditions that gave rise to this Olmec and Epi-Olmec polity, and to document the transformations that occurred in the wake of its decline in an area of some 400 sq. km that encompasses montane, piedmont, alluvial, wetland, and aeolian environments. In this paper we offer a theoretical and methodological overview of the project, grounded in political-economic and landscape perspectives and combining traditional pedestrian survey with advanced remote sensing technologies, including LiDAR. Further, we present initial assessments of changing settlement patterns within the Tres Zapotes hinterland.

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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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16097