In the Beginning: TVP and TMP -- Reflections on the Classic Teotihuacan Period Survey in the Teotihuacan Valley, 1962-1964

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In June 1960, Eric Wolf organized an NSF-sponsored conference of 11 American and Mexican archaeologists held at the University of Chicago to evaluate the status of previous anthropological studies focusing on the Basin of Mexico and to coordinate future research. This led to two analogous long-range plans beginning in 1962. 1) René Millon’s Teotihuacan Mapping Project (TMP), based at the University of Rochester, centered on the Classic period ceremonial center at Teotihuacan (ca. 100-650/750 CE) and its surrounding urban area (ca. 20 km2). 2) William Sanders’ Teotihuacan Valley Project (TVP), based at The Pennsylvania State University, concentrating on identifying and mapping rural settlements (505 km2) from all time periods (Paleoindian-Colonial), which transformed into the larger Basin of Mexico Project (BMP) with five survey regions (totaling ca. 7,000 km2). The TMP and TVP focused initially on two issues: 1) precisely defining chronological periods and phases by ceramic analyses (pottery, figurines, candeleros, etc.) and 2) field-by-field ground survey using aerial photographs to plot the extent of urban and rural settlement areas. As a Penn State student, I worked on the TVP for my dissertation and was also hired by the TMP and will discuss the ensuing cooperation, competition, and problems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23037