The Middle Preclassic Site of Pajonal and Its Interactions with La Venta and Aguada Fénix

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pajonal is a Middle Preclassic site situated between La Venta and Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, Mexico. The site has a spatial layout similar to La Venta, formed by an elongated plaza with an E Group at its center, several structures to the east and west edges, and a mound to the north. This pattern has been defined as the Gulf Middle Formative standardized complex, a subtype of the Chiapas Middle Formative pattern. Pajonal also has traits that resemble Aguada Fénix, i.e., 20 aligned structures on the east and west edges of the main plaza and a similar orientation. These traits make Pajonal a key site for understanding the interaction between the Middle Usumacinta region and La Venta.

In 2022 we conducted excavations in the E Group plaza. About two-thirds of the recovered obsidian was imported from San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala, and one-third was from highland Mexico, while the ceramics, highly eroded, include Middle Usumacinta region and Olmec types. These results indicate that the inhabitants of Pajonal interacted with both regions, although they were more actively involved with the obsidian exchange routes in the Maya area than with Highlands Mexico during the late Middle Preclassic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38612.0