Paradox no More? Postclassic Mazapa and its Regional Context

Author(s): Gabriela Montero Mejía; Marcie Venter

Year: 2017

Summary

During the 2014 through 2016 field and laboratory seasons of the RRATZ Project, the archaeological site of Mazapa was recorded, mapped, and its pottery and obsidian artifacts analyzed. These efforts reveal that Mazapa, located near Chonegal, Veracruz, is one of the largest Late Postclassic sites known for the southern Gulf lowlands; it contains approximately 170 structures that range from low housemounds to platforms measuring 7 meters high. Although sizeable Postclassic settlements have been documented for the western Tuxtlas to the immediate southeast, and the Mixtequilla region to the northwest, only ephemeral contemporary occupations had been previously identified in this intermediate region. Preliminary understandings of the site suggest that it shared features with both adjacent regions. Landform modifications around the periphery of the site core may have given it a defensive advantage characteristic of its contemporaries in the uplands, its ceramic assemblage shares greater affinities with sites to the west (despite differences based on local clays), and obsidian materials reflect broad temporal trends of the Late Postclassic. This paper presents the results of field and laboratory investigations, and comments on the impact this new information has for the regional Postclassic archaeological context of the broader southern Gulf lowlands.

Cite this Record

Paradox no More? Postclassic Mazapa and its Regional Context. Gabriela Montero Mejía, Marcie Venter. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 431947)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -107.271; min lat: 12.383 ; max long: -86.353; max lat: 23.08 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15549