Appendix B: Obsidian Craft Production and Progressive Core- Blade Technology in the Central Mexican Highlands (original) (raw)
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Olmec Civilization, Veracruz, Mexico: Dating of the San Lorenzo Phase
Science, 1967
Archeological excavations at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, show that the Olmec sculptures of this zone are associated with the San Lorenzo phase, which can be placed in the Early Formative period (1500-800 B.C.) on the basis of ceramic comparisons. Five of six radiocarbon dates for the San Lorenzo phase fall within the 1200-900 B.C. span. The San Lorenzo phase therefore marks the beginning of Olmec civilization, and the sites forming the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan group represent the oldest civilized communities known in Mexico or Central America.
Historical Archaeology in Central and Northern Mesoamerica: Development and Current Status
Mesoamerica, an indigenous New World culture area (compare definitions in Adams [2005], Kirchhoff [1943], Weaver [1993], and West [1964]) (Fig. 1), is characterized by the presence of state-level societies, with highly differentiated cultures and linguistically separated peoples in a geographical area of substantial environmental variation (Carmack, 1996). The region is one of great interest to scholars investigating early emergent civilizations through comparative studies. As a consequence, substantially more research has been conducted on the Prehispanic civilizations than on the developments after contact with Old World civilizations in the sixteenth century. For the purposes of this chapter, we are using the boundaries of Mesoamerica as present in the sixteenth century
Early Olmec obsidian trade and economic organization at San Lorenzo
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2013
The Olmec were the first complex society to develop in Mesoamerica between 1800-600 cal B.C. The earliest large Olmec center during this period was the archaeological site of San Lorenzo which emerged as Mesoamerica’s first large ritual and political center between 1400-1000 cal B.C. San Lorenzo’s growth as a prominent center included the development of long distance trade relationships with adjacent areas of Guatemala and highland Mexico. High precision chemical analysis of obsidian imported for use in the fabrication of cutting tools is used to reconstruct the growth, size and extent of San Lorenzo’s interregional exchange networks with areas of Mexico and Guatemala where obsidian occurs as raw material. A total of 852 obsidian artifacts were analyzed to reconstruct changes in obsidian procurement between 1800-800 cal B.C. This represents one of the largest samples of sourced obsidian from a Mesoamerican site and it provides a comprehensive picture for the development of interregional trade networks for Mesoamerica’s first large Olmec center.
Review of "Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica" by Christopher A. Pool
farmsteads surrounding a more densely populated core area. The rich alluvial floodplain would have made agriculture less of a challenge than elsewhere in the Maya area, and there is significant discussion of cacao having been an important economic crop, though evidence for this is largely anecdotal. Chapter 6 summarizes evidence for social and economic hierarchies and integration, concluding that Quirigua' was less stratified than Copan and distinct in its economic and political relationships. In Chapters 7 and 8 Ashmore interprets architectural data and concludes that Quirigua's rulers mimicked the use of space at Copan to elevate the Gulf Coast as well as its several "sister" manifestations throughout ancient Mesoamerica are the subject of this volume. Pool deftly contextualizes the rise and subsequent blending of all things Olmec, beginning with sedentism and continuing with the origins of writing, calendrics, and truly complex socioeconomic and sociopolitical organization. His is a fine example of reflective, synthetic, and thorough scholarship of the first order.
Excavations at El Remolino: Household Archaeology in the San Lorenzo Olmec Region
Journal of Field Archaeology, 2005
Studies on the Olmec frequently focus on large centers and monumental works of art, often ignoring the important role of peripheral sites in regional hierarchies. Recent investigations at the Early Normative period (900-1500 b.c, uncorrected radiocarbon years) site of El Remolino help balance this aelite centered" focus by collecting household and community level data at a habitation area away from the regional center of San Lorenzo. Subsurface testing and extensive excavations produced evidence of living surfaces, features, and refuse disposal patterns, which together with phytolith data improve our understanding of a lower order Olmec site. El Remolino was established in the San Lorenzo phase as a permanent settlement whose inhabitants pursued fishing, hunting, gathering, and plant cultivation. The degree to which this site was politically or economically dependent on the elite center of San Lorenzo is unknown. ologia of the Instituto National de Antropologia e Historia for granting permission for the investigations, and the municipal president of Texistepec for his support of the Journal of Field Arch neology /Vol. 30, 2005 1 79 project. I also wish to thank Perfecto Dominguez for allowing me to excavate on his property. Thanks to Steven Bozarth for phytolith analysis, and finally, I thank the archaeologists and fieldworkers who contributed to the success of this project and to the people of Tenochtitlan and the modern community of El Bajio for their hospitality.
In this dissertation I address the timing of and interrelatedness between initial Early Formative period (2000–1500 BCE) transitions in residential mobility, subsistence, and social organization in Mesoamerica. I approach these topics using evidence from the La Consentida Archaeological Project (LCAP), a multi-season field and laboratory investigation of the site of La Consentida on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Based on six radiocarbon dates (1947–1530 cal B.C.), La Consentida represents the earliest village site ever discovered in coastal Oaxaca, and likely in much of Pacific coastal Mexico. According to these dates, the site has produced some of the earliest ceramics and mounded earthen architecture known in Mesoamerica. In this dissertation, I argue on the basis of changes over time in earthen architecture, ground stone tools, and house construction that the community grew more sedentary over the course of site occupation. Based on studies of faunal remains, human dental pathologies, isotopic indicators, and food processing technology, I conclude that the community ate a broad diet but consumed more maize than did contemporaneous groups in other Early Formative period occupation areas, such as the Soconusco region of Chiapas and Guatemala. Culinary preferences may have changed at La Consentida, however, with a shift over time from consuming maize in beverage form to processing flour on stone mills that prompted increasing dental attrition. Anthropomorphic ceramic figurines from the site demonstrate a diversity of social roles, suggesting that the community was heterarchically complex from very early in its history. Obsidian sourcing and evidence of ceramic formal and decorative styles similar to those from other Formative period sites in West Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and Central Mexico indicate La Consentida’s broad interaction sphere. The very early dates associated with ceramic vessel fragments from La Consentida may complicate current models for the adoption of ceramic technology in Mesoamerica by suggesting an early tradition developing along the western Pacific coast that was contemporaneous with the Soconusco region’s Barra phase (1900–1700 cal B.C.). These various lines of evidence demonstrate that La Consentida was a community in transformation during one of the most fundamental moments of socioeconomic change in the ancient Americas. Research at La Consentida is relevant to key archaeological debates concerning Archaic to Formative period transitions in settlement, subsistence, and social organization. Evidence from the site is beginning to support arguments for gradual adoption of sedentism, early consumption of significant quantities of maize, and the importance of heterarchical distinctions in the birth of Mesoamerican social complexity.