Sociopolitical and Cultural Renewals during Late and Terminal Formative in the Lerma’s Valley: The Post-Chupicuaro Developments

Summary

Chupicuaro reached its cultural and demographic peak between 400 and 100 BCE. This Formative culture was integrated into the western Mesoamerican sphere and was characterized by its homogeneity, with diversified but still poorly understood relationships with Central Mexico, particularly in the sites of Cuicuilco and Cerro de los Tepalcates, and Tlaxcala-Puebla area. The decades before our era underwent both socio-spatial reconfigurations, probably due to rapid environmental change in the principal cultural epicenter, the valley of Acambaro, which was massively depopulated. The synchronicity of these evolutions with the events that took place in the Basin of Mexico or the regions of Puebla Tlaxacala is particularly striking. The recent works carried out in two zones of the Lerma region, the valley of Acambaro itself, and the alluvial plain of Lerma some 100 km downstream, lead to revisit the current assumptions on the directions of population movements that signal the end of Chupicuaro and which mark the beginning of new processes embodied by Protoclassic societies in north-central Mexico. These societies are characterized by their diversity, at least through their material culture, and display more or less intense links with Teotihuacan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20617