Tlalancaleca: Ceramics and Interregional Interactions in Formative Central Mexico

Summary

Using ceramics as a proxy for social contact, we discuss a long history of interregional interactions of Tlalancaleca with other areas during the Formative Period. We have observed some clear changes of ceramic assemblages in the transitions between the Middle, Late, and Terminal Formative (or between the Texoloc, Tezoquipan, and Late Tezoquipan phases). While we do not imply that the presence or absence of certain ceramic traditions serves as direct indicators for political control, it is likely that Tlalancaleca formed part of important interaction spheres along with other areas such as the Morelos region, the Tehuacan Valley, the Basin of Mexico, and more lately with the Valley of Teotihuacan. Some ceramics resembling those from the Patlachique-Tzacualli tradition at Teotihuacan, which were formerly seen as foreign and brought after the abandonment of Tlalancaleca around 100 A.D., have been obtained from secure contexts in recent excavations of monumental architecture at Tlalancaleca. This suggests that the manufacture of similar ceramic traditions (with different raw materials) was widely shared among different social groups in Central Mexico just before the expansion of the Teotihuacan state.

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): 20657