Reconstructing Population Histories in the Gulf Lowlands: Review and Prospect

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican Population History: Demography, Social Complexity, and Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the past three decades the Gulf Lowlands of Mexico have witnessed an explosion of systematically collected archaeological survey data. The Gulf Lowlands, however, present particular challenges for the collection of data, reconstruction of local population histories, and comparison among datasets within and beyond the region. These include (1) a dynamic geomorphology of meandering rivers with deep alluvial valleys interrupted by a historically active volcanic range with variable depths and distributions of ashfall strongly affect the preservation and surface visibility of archaeological features; (2) variable groundcover, including large areas of sugarcane production with low, dense, foliage that seasonally can frustrate lidar detection as well as surface visibility; (3) varying pedestrian survey and collection strategies; (4) an archaeological record containing accretional residential platforms large enough to have supported multiple residences and documented areas of non-mounded occupation; and (5) application of widely divergent assumptions in estimating and comparing population sizes. In this paper we critically review approaches to collecting and interpreting population history data in the southern and south-central Gulf Lowlands, compare pedestrian and lidar-aided survey data recently collected in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin and suggest ways to reconcile and compare population histories derived from diverse datasets.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Ancient Mesoamerican Population History: Demography, Social Complexity, and Change

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32231