A Methodological Challenge: Understanding the Population Dynamics in the Lerma Floodplain through the Case of Tres Mezquites, Michoacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Alluvial plains in Mexico are still little explored. At first glance their archaeological potential is difficult to appreciate because they are areas of both sedimentary accumulation and destruction caused by intensive agriculture. To compensate these limitations in the Lerma alluvial plain (Michoacan, Guanajuato), we combined several survey (satellite imagery, informant, systematic and geophysical prospection) and registration methods (entity, structures, artifacts densities). The complementarity of these methods allowed to produce an archaeological map that was sufficiently relevant to provide a reasonable idea of the settlement pattern and the chronology of occupation in the alluvial plain. Although the geo-archaeological study showed intrasites succession of rapid sedimentary accretion during prehispanic and later occupations, the fieldwork seasons conducted between 2014 and 2018 highlighted a dense network of settlements on the riverbanks, in various areas of the plain, and at the foothills. This map is not intended to be representative of true occupational intensity and to reflect with exactitude the privileged areas of settlement through time, but it shows that the taphonomic limitations did not prevent the detection of a sufficient number of prehispanic sites to suggest that the floodplain had been very densely populated at least since the beginning of our millennium.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23917