The Middle Formative Lithic Economy of Tlalancaleca, Puebla: Recent Findings from Obsidian Technological Analysis and pXRF Sourcing

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Disentangling Puebla/Tlaxcala: Recent Advances in Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Visual Culture" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Tlalancaleca was a major urban center in Puebla-Tlaxcala during the Middle to Terminal Formative periods (1000 BC-AD 250). To better understand its formation, it is necessary to study the economic activities and provisioning networks of inhabitants during the onset of urbanization in the Texoloc phase (650-500 BC). To this end, I share new data on Tlalancaleca’s Texoloc phase blade industry based on the technological analysis of obsidian recovered from a residence and community structure. Additionally, I present the results of pXRF obsidian sourcing of this assemblage. Finally, I compare Tlalancaleca’s lithic economy and provisioning networks to those of Tetel, Las Mesitas, Xochitecatl, and La Laguna, contemporaneous villages and urban centers of Puebla-Tlaxcala. This comparison elucidates similarities and differences in the lifeways of rural and urbanizing settlements and the urban processes of the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Disentangling Puebla/Tlaxcala: Recent Advances in Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Visual Culture   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52239