A Possible Sculptural Tradition in Eastern Michoacán and Western State of México

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in South Central Michoacán México, Ongoing Studies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Scant attention has been paid to the past of the current border of the states of Michoacán and Estado de México, though there has been a proposed local archaeological traditions for the region in order to understand archaeological contexts. There are archaeological data about large carved stone sculptures which can lay the foundations to start a regional archaeological study. In the High Cutzamala River Basin region, there are around fifteen carved stone sculptures found between its northwest end (San Felipe Los Alzati, Michoacán) and its southeast end (San Lucas del Pulque, Estado de México). Some of them are in regional museums, community museums, and private collections. These impressive sculptures have been described since the mid-20th century, attributing them to its aesthetic similarity to "snake heads" or "rattle snakes" and their shapes have been compared to sculptures from distant regions. However, these studies have not placed these important monuments in a firm spatial and temporal archaeological context. In this study, I present a detailed typological study to develop a first categorization, identify them in time and space ,and determine the technological and symbolic features they express.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeology in South Central Michoacán México, Ongoing Studies

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22980