Christopher A. Pool

THE EARLY HORIZON AT TRES ZAPOTES: IMPLICATIONS FOR OLMEC INTERACTION

Abstract Modeling Olmec participation in Early Horizon interaction networks requires better understanding of the relations of Gulf Olmec communities with one another as well as with contemporaries elsewhere in Mesoamerica. We compare pottery, figurines, and obsidian assemblages from a recently isolated Early Formative component at Tres Zapotes with contemporary assemblages from San Lorenzo and Macayal, both in the Coatzacoalcos basin. Our analysis indicates that village inhabitants at Tres Zapotes interacted with populations in eastern Olman but also forged their own economic and social ties with central Veracruz and the Mexican highlands. This evidence suggests a heterogeneous politico-economic landscape in which multiple polities of varying complexity participated in overlapping networks of interaction, alliance, and competition within and beyond Olman.

FORMATIVE OBSIDIAN PROCUREMENT AT TRES ZAPOTES, VERACRUZ, MEXICO: IMPLICATIONS FOR OLMEC AND EPI-OLMEC POLITICAL ECONOMY

Abstract We report the results of chemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts from Tres Zapotes using X-ray fluorescence analysis. This is the first obsidian sourcing study for this major Olmec and Epi-Olmec center in which samples are drawn from secure archaeological proveniences specifically assigned to Early, Middle, Late Formative, and Protoclassic periods. We employed a stratified random sampling strategy to select 180 obsidian artifacts from excavated assemblages, supplementing the random sample with another 24 specimens drawn from rare visual categories. Consequently, we are able to characterize changes in the relative importance of different obsidian sources in the political economy of Tres Zapotes across the critical transition from Olmec to Epi-Olmec society with greater confidence than has been possible for the Gulf lowlands while extending our observations to the full sample of 5,713 visually characterized obsidian artifacts—2,695 of which come from the well-dated Formative contexts examined in this article. Our study confirms the absence of obsidian from Otumba and from Guatemalan sources in the excavated Olmec assemblage in favor of sources from eastern Puebla and Veracruz, supporting a model of overlapping autonomous networks for obsidian procurement at Gulf Olmec sites. Presence of the Guatemalan San Martín Jilotepeque source in Epi-Olmec contexts may relate to the reestablishment of trans-Isthmian contacts, while increasing prevalence of Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian from eastern Puebla marks the beginning of a long-term trend. Although more even representation of obsidian sources in Epi-Olmec contexts is consistent with the hypothesized transition from an exclusionary Olmec political economy toward a more “corporate” system associated with power sharing among factional leaders at Tres Zapotes, neither Olmec nor Epi-Olmec elites monopolized a particular obsidian source or technology.

The Archaeology of Disjuncture: Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico

Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have—intentionally or unintentionally—focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glosses over how alternative networks intersect with the former through common nodes. Models of long-distance interaction have largely ignored variation in how external influences are negotiated across space within the receiving region. We adapt Arjun Appadurai’s concept of disjuncture to conceptualize how human groups negotiate cultural messages transmitted through multiscalar interaction networks. Disjuncture fundamentally refers to the decoupling of different facets of culture, economy, and politics where human interactions follow variable trajectories through space. The variability with which human groups reconcile foreign cultural information within local social networks leads to cultural diversity across space in the receiving region. We use the concept to detail the variability with which Teotihuacan symbols, ideology, and economic influences were adopted across the Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz, Mexico.

ASKING MORE AND BETTER QUESTIONS: OLMEC ARCHAEOLOGY FOR THE NEXT KATUN

Abstract The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexicos southern Gulf lowlands as well as important new work on Formative period interregional interaction and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative research on the evolution of social complexity. In this essay I review this work and make some suggestions for future research directions.

Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity

Abstract Seasonal wetlands and exuberant crop growth present challenges to systematic archaeological survey in alluvial settings, particularly in the tropical lowlands. Lidar can reduce the time and cost required to survey such areas by allowing targeting of elevated features not buried under recent alluvium, but demographic interpretation requires estimating post-abandonment alluvial depths. The broad alluvial plain between the Papaloapan delta and the Tuxtla Mountains in southern Veracruz, Mexico, offers a valuable case study, featuring seasonally inundated marshes, lakes, and vast fields of sugar cane, a crop infamously obstructive to lidar mapping. Undertaken to reconstruct demographic and organizational change in the Tres Zapotes polity, this study evaluates the benefits and limitations of lidar for archaeological survey in tropical alluvial settings based on overlap between lidar and systematic pedestrian survey and estimates of alluvial depth obtained by auger testing and underscores the importance of timing for lidar mapping in sugar cane.

But Robert, Where Did the Pots Go? Ceramic Exchange and the Economy of Ancient Matacapan

Among Robert Santleys major contributions to Mesoamerican archaeology was the modeling of ancient economic systems. In particular, Santley proposed that the economies of Teotihuacans dependents were organized as dendritic central-place systems geared toward the bulking and export of goods and materials. Ceramic production and exchange figured prominently in Santleys dendritic model for the economy of Matacapan and the Tuxtla Mountains. In this paper we assess Santleys model in light of recent data on ceramic production and exchange in the Tuxtlas region. The result is a more informed view of political economy that does not easily fit any one central-place model.

Gulf Coast Classic

relative time period: Follows the Olmec tradition, precedes the Central Mexico Postclassic tradition. Encompasses the Protoclassic, Early Classic, Middle Classic, Late Classic or Epiclassic, and Early Postclassic periods, as these terms have been used by investigators in different subregions.

Comments on 'Technological choices in ceramic production', Archaeometry, 42 (1), 1-76, 2000

Sillar, B., and Tite, M. S., 2000, The challenge of ‘technological choices for materials science approaches in archaeology, Archaeometry42, 2–20. Livingstone Smith, A., 2000, Processing clay for pottery in northern Cameroon: social and technical requirements, Archaeometry42, 21–42. Sillar, B., 2000, Dung by preference: the choice of fuel as an example of how Andean pottery production is embedded within wider technical, social, and economic practices, Archaeometry42, 43–60. Pool, C. A., 2000, Why a kiln? Firing technology in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz (Mexico), Archaeometry42, 61–76.