Anthropology 150

THE MESOAMERICAN ARCHAIC AND FORMATIVE PERIODS

The Transition to Agriculture And Development of Social Complexity

Highland/Lowland Distinction

 Bias in data towards a highlands model

 Emerging evidence of early sedentism/agriculture in lowlands and coastal zones

Tehuacan and Oaxaca

 These two regions have the most complete data

 Both carried out in 1960s  Oaxaca project continued into 1970s

 Many personnel worked on both projects

 Model is co-evolutionary  Sedentism/agriculture/domestication evolve in

concert

Tehauacan Valley

Richard S. MacNeish (Scotty) 1917-2001

Tehuacan Valley

Coxcatlan Cave

Teosinte

Teosinte is now recognized by most archaeologists and botanists To be ancestral to Zea Mays. Genetic studies suggests that Zea mays Comes from a population of teosinte which was found in the Rio Balsas Drainage, West of the basin of Mexico.

Geneticists place domestication at about 7100 BC (calibrated). Recent archaeological excavations by Dolores Piperno found starches from domesticated maize on grinding implements whose context was date to 7000 BC (calibrated).

Maize (Zea mays)

Based on the Tehuacan data, it was Proposed that Zea mays was domestticated From a now extinct variety of Zea, which Walter Galinat Called “Pod Corn.”

That model is now largely contradicted by genetic studies linking domesticated maize to Teosinte from the Balsas drainage.

New World Domesticates

Tehuacan Chronology

Stage 1

Tehuacan Valley – Stage 2

Tehuacan Valley – Stage 3

Tehuacan Valley – Stage 4

Tehuacan Valley – Stage 5

Subsistence Change in Tehuacan

The Evolution of Maize 5000 B.C. – A.D. 1500

Oaxaca

 Work led by Kent Flannery, who had been the faunal analyst for the Tehuacan Project

 Most fieldwork done 1964-1968

 Multi-disciplinary

 Detailed mapping of cave floors

 Poor knowledge of open sites

Results

 Best Data from Guila Naquitz  Curcubits (gourds) domesticated by 8000 B.C.  This interpretation is disputed

 Heavy reliance on seed plants, esp. mesquite and acorns is indicated for Archaic peoples.

 Early maize found dated to ca. 5400 B.C. (uncalibrated)  Statistical analysis shows the maize from Guila

Naquitz is more similar to teosinte that is anything from Tehuacan

Guila Naquitz, Oaxaca

Oaxaca Archaic Chronology

Kent Flannery posits that until 2000 BC maize was not productive enough to supplant wild plants in the diet

Critiques of the Tehuacan/Oaxaca model  Genetic studies refute the Galinat model of

domestication

 All of the maize found in Tehuacan is domesticated, and Tehuacan itself appears to be marginal

 New AMS dates run on the maize recovered from Tehuacan shows it to be much later than MacNeish thought

 Some critics believe the morphological changes in cucurbits from Oaxaca are due to climatological change, rather than domestication. They also portray Oaxaca as being marginal to the processes of plant domestication and agricultural innovation in Mesoamerica

The Archaic Period in Other Regions

Studies from the humid lowlands Of Mesoamerica focus on pollen and Phytoiths (called microbotanical Remains).

Macrobotanical remains, such as maize Cobs, do no t preserve well in the lowlands

The Pearsall/Piperno Alternative  Tropical forest food production emerged at approximately the same

time as it did in the Near East and earlier than currently documented in highland Mexico

 The lowland tropics witnessed climatic and vegetational changes between 11,000 and 10,000 B.P. (before present) that are no less profound than those experienced at higher latitudes, and which led to major shifts in resource densities and distributions and necessitated cultural responses

 Systematic cultivation of small plots adjacent to residential structures was underway during the 10th and 9th centuries B.P. in the humid, tropical lowlands.

 By 7000 B.P. larger scale food production characterized by the preparation of substantial areas away from house/side locations had emerged.

Piperno/Pearsall Model Based largely on Pollen/Phytolith Data  Early Mesoamerican domesticates include

Cotton (Yucatan)

Common Beans (highland Guatemala, Balsas region)

Maize (Balsas region) 7100 BC (calibrated)

Curcubits (Balsas/highlands)

Archaic and Early Formative Human Adaptations on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala

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OC001

MES001 MES002

SUC001

TIQ002

TEC001

SIP001 SIP002

CHQ003 CHQ004

ACH001

JUT002

SIP99E

MAN015

TIL016

SIP014

Ocos

Area

Manchon

Area

Tiquisate/

Tecojate Area

Sipacate Area Chiquihuitan Area

N

EW

S

70 0 70 Kilometers

Excavations in Early Formative mounds Sediment cores beginning >3000 years BP

Vibracoring in water-logged sediments •Inland edge of estuary-lagoon system

Sectioning and sampling the cores

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

-1.5 0.5 2.5

Arboreal

Charcoal Conc.

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

-3.0 -1.0 1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0

Poaceae

Cheno Am

Zea mays

SIP001 pollen indicators of forest cover and charcoal

SIP001 pollen indicators of disturbance and maize

4th Millenium BC 3rd Millenium BC 2nd Millenium BC

3500 BC

2650 BC

1700 BC

1800 BC

3700 BC

2800 BC

3800 BC

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

-1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0

Poaceae

Cheno Am

Zea mays

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

-1 1 3

Charcoal

Arboreal

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

-3.0 -1.0 1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0

Poaceae

Cheno Am

Zea mays

2000 BC

1710 BC

1183 BC 1476 BC

1700 BC

1800 BC

SIP001 Pollen

SIP99E Pollen

Composite Charcoal Environment Human Activities

3500 BC

2700 BC

-1.5 -0.5 0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5

2000 BC

1400 BC

Wet, favorable, open

Becoming drier, open

Becoming more favorable, open,

some re-forest ~1000 BC

Initial forest clearance, ~3500 BC

Periodic burning, agriculture 3500 – 2700 BC

Abandonment? 2700 BC – 2000 BC

Initial Early Formative agriculture, ~2000 BC

Intensification, 1500 – 1200 BC

Wet, favorable, forested

Coastal Chiapas: The Chantuto Culture

Settlement Model for the Chantuto period: Inland agricultural sites and coastal collection locales

Tlacuachero Shellmound

Height: 7 m Area: 1.41 ha

Complete focus on lagoonal resources

Shells of marsh clams (Polymesoda radiata)

Bones of euryhaline fish species

Shellmounds not residential

Low tool diversity

No Structures

No Hearths

No Burials

1978-79 Pedestrian 1978-1979 Transect Survey

Voorhies 1989

Vuelta Limón: an inland residential base?

Utility values

Uj=0.25

Value of clam meat

UJ-1 = 1.00

Value of whole clams

Voorhies 1976: 141

Meat is 1/4 of whole clam weight

7 km 16 km

Model predicts that central places were likely positioned beyond a minimum distance of 6.85 km.

EARLY AND MIDDLE PRECLASSIC IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA: THE OLMEC CULTURE

Ca 2000 – 400 B.C.

General Order

 2000 – 1200 B.C. (Early Preclassic 1) Pre- Olmec

 1200 - 900 B.C. EP 2 (Early Olmec)

 900- 600 B.C. MP 1(Late Olmec)

 600- 400 B.C. MP2 (Epi-Olmec)

Pre-Olmec Societies

 Early Complex Society (Simple chiefdoms) in Mazatan, Chiapas (Pacific Coast)

 Nothing comparable known so far in the rest of Mesoamerica, but it’s probable that similar data will be found elsewhere

The Olmec: Competing Models of Early Social Complexity

 Mother Culture Hypothesis: The Gulf Coast societies were the point of origin for Mesoamerican civilization

 The Sister Culture Hypothesis: There were numerous early complex societies in many regions of Mesoamerica. The Gulf coast societies were at most primus inter pares.

What is “Olmec?”

 The term is used in two senses

 To denote an archaeological culture, centered in the Gulf Coast of Mexico

 To denote a style of material culture found widely throughout Mesoamerica

 Confusion abounds because people often don’t specify how they are using the term

Olmec as a Style of Material Culture  Includes many classes of objects

 Monumental sculpture

 Portable sculpture

 Pottery

 Carved jade

 Ceramic figurines

 A lot of other stuff

Monumental Sculpture

 Most important classes of sculpture

 Colossal heads

 Altars

 Human figures

 Supernatural figures

 Stelae

Colossal heads

 Known from four sites in the Gulf Coast and two on the Pacific coast

 Gulf coast

 San Lorenzo

 La Venta

 Tres Zapotes

 Corbata

 Pacific Coast

 Abaj Takalik

 Tonala

Colossal Heads

Altars

Human figures

Supernaturals

Stelae

A common form in later Mesoamerican art, The stela first appears in the latter part of the Middle Preclassic

Portable sculpture

Pottery

Figurines

Carved jades (overlaps with portable sculpture)

Problems in defining “Olmec”

 Many of the traits labeled “Olmec” on a stylistic basis don’t originate in the Gulf Coast

 Many of the traits labeled “Olmec” on a stylistic basis don’t have their greatest distribution in the Gulf Coast

 “Olmec” elements may be used differently in different regions of Mesoamerica

San Lorenzo, Veracruz

 Principal Occupation 1200-900 B.C.

 Early Olmec Sculpture

 Area of habitation is disputed. The San Lorenzo Plateau covers 59 hectares, but survey claims an area of occupation up to 700 ha.

San Lorenzo, in modern Veracruz, Mexico was one of the Early Preclasic Olmec centers in the Gulf Coast region, from 1200 to 900 B.C.

La Venta, Tabasco was a major center in the Gulf Coast region during the Middle Preclassic Period, from 900 to 600 B.C.

La Venta was a large city, covering several square kilometers, and having monumental architecture, along with abundant sculpture

La Venta

Olmec Culture in the Pacific Coast of Guatemala

 There are two major Olmec centers in Pacific Guatemala: Abaj Takalik and La Blanca

 Of the two, La Blanca offers the most complete picture of ancient life during Olmec times because both public structures and residential structures have been excavated.