Aztec-Period Otumba: A Comparative Perspective

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Papers in Honor of Deborah L. Nichols" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fieldwork at Otumba, directed by Deborah Nichols and Thomas Charlton, producednumerous important findings on the Aztec economy and urbanism. Otumba has played anoutsized role in our understanding of Aztec craft production and economic organization inparticular. The site has been presented as both prototypical example and outlier. Wecompare archaeological data from Otumba with findings from other Postclassic sites onthree topics: regional demographic and political history; craft production/exchange; andcivic architecture. Otumba was a small center in a region of low population density.Nevertheless, it stands out from other Aztec sites in the diversity and intensity of craftproduction activity. We argue that these patterns can be accounted for by two major factors:Otumba’s location on a major trade route out of the Basin of Mexico, and a long history ofadministrative meddling by Texcoco and Tenochtitlan. Otumba’s lack of civic architecture isstriking compared to other Aztec city-state capitals, but is likely due to issues ofpreservation and post-occupational change at the site, rather than to functional differencesin Aztec times.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Papers in Honor of Deborah L. Nichols

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54109