Mountains, Obsidian, and Power in Classic Mesoamerica

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lithic analysis at various sites in the Maya area, such as Plan de las Mesas, Kaminaljuyu, Copan, and Piedras Negras reveal regional differences between obsidian tool production, distribution, and consumption. Some patterns in obsidian economies were shared between these sites, as well as others more distantly located such as Los Horcones, but all of them seem to have a special relationship with Central Mexico. Some shared cultural characteristics include sculptural and architectural traditions, as well as site placement vis-à-vis sacred mountains and obsidian sources. I revisit Robert Santley’s ideas about Teotihuacan expansion and the control of obsidian sources but with the goal of revising them based on recent archaeological data from the previously mentioned sites. The hypothesis is that Teotihuacanos in foreign lands, or local people influenced by Central Mexican culture and religion, established hilltop sites for ideological, economic, and strategic reasons, as a suite of techniques of governance for political expansion. An important factor was either real or imagined control over obsidian blade cores and their distribution elsewhere in Mesoamerica. At some sites like Kaminaljuyu, this project failed in a short time, but at Copan, these techniques succeeded well into the Late Classic, long after Teotihuacan had collapsed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39841.0