Cynthia L. Otis Charlton

Aztec craft production and specialization: Archaeological evidence from the city‐state of Otumba, Mexico

Abstract Recent (1987–9) archaeological research within the Aztec city‐state of Otumba located in the northeastern Basin of Mexico has provided data relevant to a consideration of the role of craft specialization in the evolution of city‐states between the fall of Tula (c. AD 1150) and the arrival of the Spaniards (AD 1519). Designed to evaluate alternative models of such evolution the investigations have confirmed the presence of extensive archaeological evidence for craft specialization in the city‐state centre of Otumba. Items manufactured at the site include obsidian cores, prismatic blades, and bifaces, ornaments of obsidian and rare stones, figurines, ceramic censers, spindle whorls (and their moulds), fibres, and groundstone implements. Craft specialization at rural dependencies was more restricted. The results of the project shed important light on the intricacies of the Aztec economic system.

PROVENIENCE INVESTIGATION OF CERAMICS AND OBSIDIAN FROM OTUMBA

Obsidian and ceramic artifacts from the Otumba project were analyzed by instrumental neutron-activation analysis. Sources for the obsidian were determined by comparison to a databank of Central Mexican source analyses. Ceramic sources were determined by comparison to a series of reference groups from the Basin of Mexico and by comparison with raw material samples. Obsidian from the lapidary workshop (Operation 11) comes predominantly from the Otumba and Pachuca sources. There is also an unknown compositional profile present among the artifacts. This profile may derive from a not-yet-sampled flow within one of several nearby obsidian-source areas, such as Otumba or Paredon. The majority of Otumba ceramics fall into a large group derived from clays of the Teotihuacan-valley alluvium. Aztec II Black-on-Orange and red-ware samples come from other sources in the eastern basin. Ceramics from sites along the trade route leading northeast toward Tulancingo include figurines derived from Otumba, figurines probably made locally near Tepeapulco and Tulancingo, and long-handle censers probably made in the latter two locations.

OTUMBA AND ITS NEIGHBORS

Otumba is one of a few Late Aztec-period city-states in the Basin of Mexico whose central city or town is not obscured by post-Conquest occupation. Long-term research there began in the early 1960s, with more recent fieldwork between 1987 and 1989, and has been complemented by intensive laboratory and technical analyses that are still underway. Traditional typological analyses have been aided by neutron activation analyses providing strong evidence of economic linkages between the Otumba city-state and raw material sources, as well as evidence of tribute and market distribution channels for finished products within and outside the Otumba city-state.

HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO AND THE CENTRAL MEXICAN SYMBIOTIC REGION: DEVELOPMENT, PRESENT STATUS, FUTURE PROSPECTS

Abstract The development of the field of historical archaeology in Mexico has made many advances since the inception, in effect, of its practice there in the 1960s. The roots of historical archaeology in the Central Mexican Symbiotic Region (CMSR) in general and in the Basin of Mexico in particular are discussed. Specific case studies illustrating some of the Historical Archaeology that has been done in the CMSR are referenced with particular note of some of the diagnostic materials that have been valuable to the studies. The value of these studies to the record of post-Conquest Mexico is noted as are the prospects for continued research in the area.