Obsidian Importation and Use at Teotepec, Veracruz, Mexico: Situating Site-Level Lithic Activities within a Regional Context

Summary

In this paper, I present new data on lithic production, consumption, and importation from the site of Teotepec, a large pre-Hispanic settlement located in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas region of Veracruz, Mexico. Like much of the Mexican Gulf Coast, the Prehispanic inhabitants of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas relied on non-local obsidian for most of their lithic needs. Using the results of recently completed technological and visual source analyses, I identify differences in production and consumption behavior across the site and over time to situate these behaviors within regional and interregional contexts. The combination of regional-scale data from previous projects and site-level data (both from surface collection and excavated contexts) derived from the Proyecto Arqueológico Teotepec (PAT) allow for the assessment of importation and use of obsidian at the site and to gauge Teotepec’s participation in larger regional processes.

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): 22251