Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:28:07.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE OBSIDIAN TRADE TO THE TUXTLAS REGION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PREHISTORY OF SOUTHERN VERACRUZ, MEXICO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

Robert S. Santley  and
Philip J. Arnold III
Robert S. Santley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Philip J. Arnold III
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evidence from the Tuxtla Mountains in southern Veracruz suggests that Teotihuacan established a base at Matacapan, the region's top-ranking center, sometime during the Early Classic period. This development in Tuxtlas's prehistory was associated with the founding of Matacapan, a major shift in settlement pattern, and the presence of substantial amounts of Fine Buff, a lower fired variant of Fine Orange that resembles Copa ware, a common Middle Classic-period ceramic service ware at Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan's influence at Matacapan, as monitored ratios of candelero- and tripod support to rim sherds, increased markedly in the succeeding early Middle Classic period but declined in the late Middle Classic and early Late Classic periods. At the same time, Teotihuacan's influence extended well into the countryside, where it was present not only at other large sites, but also at small villages and hamlets. These developments were associated with changes in the amount and kind of obsidian traded to the Tuxtlas. The total volume of obsidian traded to the Tuxtlas in the Middle and Late Classic periods was huge: from 7.5 to 19.6 metric tons per year. Matacapan had preferred status as far as the consumption of green obsidian was concerned, and in general, pre-Hispanic settlements in the Tuxtlas consumed more of this material than neighboring areas such as La Mixtequilla and the Hueyapan region. When Teotihuacan declined in importance and its influence throughout Mesoamerica waned, a much smaller amount of obsidian—in particular, material from Pachuca—was traded to the Tuxtlas. This is precisely what we would expect if the Central Mexican city was no longer the conveyor of obsidian over long distances, and some other center—perhaps Cantona or El Tajin—replaced Teotihuacan as the primary distributor of obsidian to southern Veracruz.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , July 2005 , pp. 179 - 194
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aveni, Anthony F. 1980 Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Borhegyi, Stephan F. 1971 Pre-Columbian Contacts—the Dryland Approach: The Impact and Influence of Teotihuacan Culture on Pre-Columbian Civilizations of Mesoamerica. In Man across the Sea, edited by Carol Riley, pp. 79–105. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bove, Frederick J., and Sonia Medrano Busto 2003 Teotihuacan, Militarism, and Pacific Guatemala. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 45–79. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey E. (editor) 2003 The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Brown, Kenneth L. 1977 The Valley of Guatemala: A Highland Port of Trade. In Teotihuacan and Kaminaljuyu: A Study in Prehistoric Cultural Contact, edited by William T. Sanders and Joseph W. Michels, pp. 205–395. Pennsylvania University Press, University Park.Google Scholar
Carrasco, David, Lindsey Jones, and Scott Sessions (editors) 2000 Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Charlton, Thomas H. 1978 Teotihuacan, Tepeapulco, and Obsidian Exploitation. Science 200:1227–1236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheek, Charles D. 1977 Teotihuacan Influence at Kaminaljuyu. In Teotihuacan and Kaminaljuyu: A Study in Prehistoric Culture Contact, edited by William T. Sanders and Joseph W. Michels, pp. 441–452. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1986 From Mountains to Molehills: A Critical Review of Teotihuacan's Obsidian Industry. In Economic Aspects of Prehispanic Highland Mexico, Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 2, edited by Barry L. Isaac, pp. 23–74. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1965 Archaeological Synthesis of Southern Veracruz and Tabasco. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, 3, edited by Robert Wauchope and Gordon R. Willey, pp. 679–715. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Abner 1969 Custom and Politics in Urban Africa: A Study of Hausa Migrants in Yoruba Towns. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1996 State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:129–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Richard A. 1976 Pre-Hispanic Relationships between the Basin of Mexico and North and West Mexico. In The Valley of Mexico: Studies in Pre-Hispanic Ecology and Society, edited by Eric R. Wolf, pp. 249–286. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip 1943a Ceramic Stratigraphy at Cerro de las Mesas, Veracruz, Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Monograph 141. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip 1943b Ceramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 140, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Fash, William L., and Barbara W. Fash 2000 Teotihuacan and the Maya: A Classic Heritage. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by David Carrasco, Lindsey Jones, and Scott Sessions, pp. 433–463. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Ferriz, H. 1985 Caltonac, a Prehispanic Obsidian Mining Center in Eastern Mexico? Journal of Field Archaeology 12:363–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia Cook, Angel, and Beatriz Leonor Merino Carrion 1998 Cantona: Urbe prehispanica en el altiplano central de Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 9:91–216.Google Scholar
Heller, Lynette, and Barbara A. Hall 2001 Lithic Artifacts. In Classic Period Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico: Diachronic Inferences from Residential Investigations, edited by Barbara L. Stark, pp. 159–170. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 12. State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1978 Teotihuacan Art in the Escuintla, Guatemala Region. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: A.D. 400–700, edited by Ester Pasztory, pp. 71–85. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred V., Jesse D. Jennings, and Edwin M. Shook 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 561. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Killion, Thomas W., and Javier Urcid 2002 The Olmec Legacy: Cultural Continuity on Mexico's Southern Gulf Coast. Journal of Field Archaeology 28:1–23.Google Scholar
Knight, Charles L. F. 1999 The Late Formative to Classic Period Obsidian Economy at Palo Errado, Veracruz, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Laporte, Juan P. 2003 Architectural Aspects of Interaction between Tikal and Teotihuacan during the Early Classic Period. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 199–216. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda 2003 The Abandonment of Teotihuacan. In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald W. Webb, pp. 91–101. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1980 Zapotec Writing. Scientific American 242:50–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1983 Teotihuacan Visitors on Monte Alban Monuments and Murals. In The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilization, edited by Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, pp. 175–181. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 2003 The Maya and Teotihuacan. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 337–356. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur G. 1978 A Brief Outline of the Artistic Evidence for Classic Period Cultural Contact between Maya Lowlands and Central Mexican Highlands. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: a.d. 400–700, edited by Ester Pasztory, pp. 63–70. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1973 The Teotihuacan Map, Volume 1. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1981 Teotihuacan: City, State, and Civilization. In Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 1, Archaeology, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, pp. 198–243. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ortiz Ceballos, Ponciano 1987 Las investigaciones arqueologicas en Veracruz. La palabra y el hombre 64:57–95.Google Scholar
Ortiz Ceballos, Ponciano, and Robert S. Santley 1998 Matacapan: Un ejemplo de enclave teotihuacano en la Costa del Gulfo. In Los ritmos de cambio en Teotihuacan: Reflexiones y discusiones de su cronologia, edited by Rosa Brambila and Ruben Cabrera, pp. 377–460. Serie Arqueologia, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Parsons, Lee A. 1978 The Peripheral Coastal Lowlands and the Middle Classic Period. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: a.d. 400–700, edited by Esther Pasztory, pp. 25–34. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1993 An Image Is Worth a Thousand Words: Teotihuacan and the Meanings of Style in Classic Mesoamerica. In Latin American Horizons, edited by Don S. Rice, pp. 113–145. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1990 Ceramic Production, Resource Procurement, and Exchange at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1992 Strangers in a Strange Land: Ethnicity and Ideology at an Enclave Community in Middle Classic Mesoamerica. In Ancient Images, Ancient Thought: The Archaeology of Ideology, edited by A.S. Goldsmith, pp. 43–55. Archaeological Association, University of Calgary.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1997 The Spatial Structure of Formative Houselots at Bezuapan. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Barbara L. Stark and Philip J. Arnold III, pp. 40–67. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A., and Georgina M. Britt 2000 A Ceramic Perspective on the Formative to Classic Transition in Southern Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 11:139–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pool, Christopher A., and Robert S. Santley 1992 Middle Classic Pottery Economics in the Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico. In Ceramic Production and Distribution: An Integrated Approach, edited by George J. Bey III and Christopher A. Pool, pp. 205–234. Westview Press, Niwot, CO.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., and Joseph W. Michels (editors) 1977 Teotihuacan and Kaminaljuyu: A Study in Prehistoric Culture Contact. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., and Barbara J. Price 1968 Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1983 Obsidian Trade and Teotihuacan Influence in Mesoamerica. In Highland–Lowland Interaction in Mesoamerica: Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by Arthur Miller, pp. 69–124. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1989a Teotihuacan Influence, Obsidian Exchange, and Economic Imperialism in Mesoamerica. In La obsidiana en Mesoamerica, edited by Margarita Goxiola and John Clark, pp. 321–329. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1989b Obsidian Working, Long-Distance Exchange, and the Teotihuacan Presence on the South Gulf Coast. In Mesoamerica after the Decline of Teotihuacan a.d. 700–900, edited by Richard A. Diehl and Janet C. Berlo, pp. 131–151. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1994 The Economy of Ancient Matacapan. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:243–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1998 Chipped Stone from the 1998 Hueyapan Archaeological Survey. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Rani T. Alexander 1996 Teotihuacan and Middle Classic Mesoamerica: A Precolumbian World System? In Arqueologia Mesoamericana: Homenaje a William T. Sanders I, edited by Guadalupe Mastache, Jeffrey R. Parsons, Robert S. Santley, and Mari Carmen Serra Puche, pp. 173–194. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Philip J. Arnold III 1996 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 23:225–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Philip J. Arnold III 2000 The Obsidian Trade and Teotihuacan Influence in the Tuxtlas. Paper presented at the Segunda Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan, San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Thomas P. Barrett 2002 Lithic Technology, Assemblage Variation, and the Organization of Production and Use of Obsidian on the South Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico. In Pathways to Blades: Sources of Variation in Mesoamerican Lithic Technology, edited by Kenneth G. Hirth and Bradford Andrews, pp. 91–103. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 45, University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Christopher A. Pool 1993 Prehispanic Exchange Relationships between Central Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Gulf Coast of Mexico. In The American Southwest and Mesoamerica: Systems of Prehistoric Exchange, edited by Jonathon E. Ericson and Timothy G. Baugh, pp. 179–211. Plenum Publishing, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Philip J. Arnold III, and Thomas P. Barrett 1997 The Formative Period in the Tuxtlas: Olmec Archaeology and Its Implications for Complex Society Development on the South Gulf Coast of Mexico. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Barbara L. Stark and Philip J. Arnold III, pp. 174–205. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Philip J. Arnold III, and Christopher A. Pool 1989 The Ceramics Production System at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:107–132.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Janet M. Kerley, and Thomas P. Barrett 1995 Teotihuacan Period Lithic Assemblages from the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. In The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, Volume 3: The Teotihuacan Period Occupation of the Valley, Part 2: Artifact Analyses, edited by William T. Sanders, pp. 466–497. Occasional Papers in Anthropology, No. 20. Matson Museum of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Ronald R. Kneebone, and Janet M. Kerley 1985 Rates of Obsidian Utilization in Central Mexico and on the South Gulf Coast. Lithic Technology 14(3):107–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos, and Christopher A. Pool 1987 Recent Archaeological Research at Matacapan, Veracruz: A Summary of the Results of the 1982 to 1986 Field Seasons. Mexicon 9:41–48.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Clare Yarborough, and Barbara A. Hall 1987 Enclaves, Ethnicity, and the Archaeological Record at Matacapan. In Ethnicity and Culture, edited by Reginald Auger, Margaret F. Glass, Scott MacEachern, and Peter H. McCartney, pp. 85–100. Archaeological Association, University of Calgary.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Thomas P. Barrett, Michael D. Glascock, and Hector Neff 2001 Prehispanic Obsidian Procurement in the Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 12:49–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schele, Linda, and David Freidel 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William R, Morrow, Gairfield.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 2003 Founding Events and Teotihuacan Connections at Copan, Honduras. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 143–165. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael W. 1971 Skeletal Morphology and Social Organization in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael W. 1981 Obsidian Production and the State in Teotihuacan. American Antiquity 46:769–788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Barbara A. Hall, Stuart Speaker, and Clare Yarborough 2001 The Pottery Sequence at Excavated Residential Mounds. In Classic Period Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico: Diachronic Inferences from Residential Investigations. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, Monograph 12, edited by Barbara L. Stark, pp. 105–158. State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Lynette Heller, Michael D. Glascock, J. Michael Elam, and Hector Neff 1992 Obsidian-Artifact Source Analysis for the Mixtequilla Region, South-Central Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 3:221–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storey, Rebecca 1991 Life and Death in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2000 “The Arrival of Strangers”: Teotihuacan and Tollan in Classic Maya History. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by David Carrasco, Lindsey Jones, and Scott Sessions, pp. 465–513. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1998 Termination Programs and Prehispanic Looting at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico. In The Sowing and the Drawing: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Records of Mesoamerica, edited by Shirley B. Mock, pp. 147–164. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Juan 1945 Las Exploraciones Effectuadas en los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia, y Etnología 3:83–107.Google Scholar
Weiant, C. W. 1943 An Introduction to the Ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 139. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Widmer, Randolph J., and Rebecca Storey 1993 Social Organization and Household Structure of a Teotihuacan Apartment Compound: S3W1:33 of the Tlajinga Barrio. In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence, edited by Robert S. Santley and Kenneth G. Hirth, pp. 87–104. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.Google Scholar
Yarborough, Clare M. 1992 Teotihuacan and the Gulf Coast: Ceramic Evidence for Contact and Interactional Relationships. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar