No Need to Change Our Ollas: The Role of Utilitarian Ceramics in Household Cultural Transmission and Economic Adaptations During the Postclassic Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The PAMLAS project examines the cultural continuity of indigenous populations at the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin sites of Mazapa, La Sierra, and Escobillal. This paper specifically focuses on the role of utilitarian ceramics at the household level, exploring their significance in cultural transmission during periods of economic adaptation, particularly after the Classic “collapse” and the subsequent arrival of the Aztec empire. The persistence of continuity, alongside minor changes in the production and consumption practices of these ceramics, reveals strategies employed to navigate sociopolitical transformations. At these sites, traditional ceramic classification is methodologically insufficient for this period, as representative Postclassic types usually acquired and used by elites are scarce. This paper presents the findings from the PAMLAS ceramic attribute analysis of a Postclassic sample, demonstrating how this research contributes to understanding the Gulf Coast’s cultural “patchwork.” This region, inhabited by “ordinary people” for millennia, has preserved cultural traits that remain visible today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Understanding the Mexican Gulf Coast Postclassic

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53230