Elsa M. Redmond

On the logic of archaeological inference: Early Formative pottery and the evolution of Mesoamerican societies

The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups derived from an extremely unsystematic collection of sherds from only seven localities, Blomster et al. claim that the Olmec received no carved gray or kaolin white pottery from other regions; they also claim that neighboring valleys in the Mexican highlands did not exchange such pottery with each other. Not only can one not leap directly from the elements in potsherds to such sweeping culture-historical conclusions, it is also the case that other lines of evidence (including petrographic analysis) have for 40+ years produced empirical evidence to the contrary. In the end, it was their commitment to an unfalsifiable model of Olmec superiority that led Blomster et al. to bypass the logic of archaeological inference.

Prehispanic chiefdoms of the western Venezuelan Ilanos

Abstract The western Venezuelan llanos hold great potential for investigations into the organization and development of prehispanic chiefdoms. Recent research has revealed that beginning c. AD 500–600 dramatic cultural developments include the emergence of three‐level settlement hierarchies according to site size and architecture, substantial population growth, the appearance of social differentiation in residential and burial patterns, systems of drained‐field agriculture, and extensive networks of earthen causeways.

The Chronology of Conquest: Implications of New Radiocarbon Analyses from the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca

Recently obtained radiocarbon determinations from the Canada de Cuicatlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, have made it possible to revise the chronological placement of the Perdido phase (from 600-200 B. C. to 750-300 B. C. ) and the Lomas phase (from 200 B. C.-A.D. 200 to 300 B. C.-A.D. 200), the latter being the phase for which substantial evidence of a Zapotec conquest of the Canada has been recovered. The revised chronology brings the Lomas phase into close alignment with the Late Monte Alban I (300-100 B.C.) and the Monte Alban II (100 B.C.-A.D. 200) phases, during which the early Zapotec state emerged with its capital at Monte Alban in the Oaxaca Valley. The new Canada dates support the proposition that territorial expansion outside the Oaxaca Valley played a major role very early in the process of Zapotec primary state formation. This strategy of extraValley expansion appears to have been initiated before all areas within the Oaxaca Valley were fully integrated into the Zapotec state.

Drained Fields at La Tigra, Venezuelan Llanos: A Regional Perspective

This paper discusses drained-field studies in Venezuela beginning with the first investigations two decades ago that focused on field systems themselves and proceeding to recent research by the authors that examined the drained fields of La Tigra as part of a regional-scale project in the state of Barinas. The La Tigra fields are dated to the Late Gavan phase (A.D. 550-1000) a time of extensive habitation in the region. An analysis of excavated pollen samples from the drained Alds and a nearby village site has revealed that whereas maize was the predominant plant there was notable intersite variability in the secondary cultigens. The paper also considers whether population pressure could have prompted the construction of the La Tigra>Ids. A comparison of archaeological population estimates to estimates of potential population under varying assumptions of productive capacity yields no indication of demographic pressures. We suggest that drained-ld construction in this case was motivated primarily by political-economic considerations part of a strategy whereby the regional elite sought to stimulate and mobilize the production of surplus by village farmers.

Ceramic Microtypology and the Territorial Expansion of the Early Monte Albán State in Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract The Late and Terminal Formative (ca. 300 B.C. to A.D. 200) was the crucial period during which the early Monte Albán state came into being and began to extend its political influence over a wide area in what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca. One of the most distinctive and frequent ceramic types of this period is the G.12, which is a grayware (gris) bowl with characteristic incising on the interior rim and base. Originally defined by Alfonso Caso, Ignacio Bernal, and Jorge Acosta based on their excavations at Monte Albán, the G.12 bowl has also been found at many other Oaxacan sites. The incised motifs on the interior bases of G.12 bowls show substantial variability, but researchers have been uncertain whether any portion of this variability shows chronological patterning. We present a new microtypology of G.12 bowls based on our recent excavations at three sites near SanMartín Tilcajete, some 27 km south of Monte Albán. Our analysis yields a finer-grained chronology that helps elucidate the step-by-step territorial expansion of the emergent Monte Albán state.

Lightning and Jaguars

It is not uncommon these days for archaeologists to be challenged to take a stand on whether political development is driven by material or ideological factors (e.g., Demarest, 1989; Demarest and Conrad, 1993; Hodder, 1991; Miller and Tilley, 1984; Shanks and Tilley, 1987). We doubt, however, that polarizing the debate in this fashion leads to a better understanding of political dynamics in the ancient past. In the present chapter we eschew such polarization and strive instead to take a comprehensive, interactional approach to politics, which we consider to be the strategies and tactics that people use to attain and exercise power, the capacity to determine the behavior of others

Statecraft and expansionary dynamics: A Virú outpost at Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley, Peru

Significance Cross-cultural analyses of early statecraft suggest that territorial expansion was an integral part of the process of primary state formation, closely associated with the delegation of authority to subordinate administrators and the construction of core outposts of the state in foreign territories. Understood as instruments of territorial expansion that were closely tied to historical processes, such outposts offer important viewpoints on the evolutionary trajectories of specific early states and also on the nature and extent of the foreign policy of archaic states in general. Interpolity interaction and regional control were central features of all early state societies, taking the form of trade—embedded in political processes to varying degrees—or interregional conquest strategies meant to expand the polity’s control or influence over neighboring territories. Cross-cultural analyses of early statecraft suggest that territorial expansion was an integral part of the process of primary state formation, closely associated with the delegation of authority to subordinate administrators and the construction of core outposts of the state in foreign territories. We report here on a potential case of a core outpost, associated with the early Virú state, at the site of Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley, located 75 km north of the Virú state heartland on the north coast of Peru. This site is discussed in the context of other possible Virú outposts in the Moche Valley, Pampa La Cruz, and Huaca Las Estrellas, and as part of a broader reflection on expansionary dynamics and statecraft.

Ancient palace complex (300–100 BC) discovered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Significance The emergence of the earliest states is a major research problem in anthropology. A key archaeological manifestation of states is the royal palace. Excavations at the site of El Palenque have recovered the oldest-known palace in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. The palace displays similarities to the royal palaces of historically documented Mesoamerican states. It was a multifunctional palace, composed of courts and buildings where government officials assembled to conduct state affairs, as well as the rulers residential quarters. We propose that the palace complex was built in a single large-scale construction effort. A series of radiocarbon dates indicates that the El Palenque palace complex was in use during the 300–100 BC period of archaic state emergence in Oaxaca. Recently completed excavations at the site of El Palenque in Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca have recovered the well-preserved remains of a palace complex dated by associated radiocarbon samples and ceramics to the Late Formative period or Late Monte Albán I phase (300–100 BC), the period of archaic state emergence in the region. The El Palenque palace exhibits certain architectural and organizational features similar to the royal palaces of much later Mesoamerican states described by Colonial-period sources. The excavation data document a multifunctional palace complex covering a maximum estimated area of 2,790 m2 on the north side of the site’s plaza and consisting of both governmental and residential components. The data indicate that the palace complex was designed and built as a single construction. The palace complex at El Palenque is the oldest multifunctional palace excavated thus far in the Valley of Oaxaca.

Early (300−100 B.C.) temple precinct in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Significance Recent excavations at the site of El Palenque have recovered the earliest-known temple precinct in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, dating to the Late Monte Albán I phase (300–100 B.C.). This precinct exhibits characteristics similar to the temple precincts of 16th century Mesoamerican states. A walled enclosure contains differentiated temples, priests’ residences, and ritual features. We propose that the precinct’s components represent a hierarchy of temples staffed by a specialized full-time priesthood. A series of radiocarbon dates indicate that the El Palenque temple precinct was in use during the 300–100 B.C. period of archaic state emergence in Oaxaca. Archaeological investigations during the past two decades in Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca have documented the appearance of key public buildings, such as the royal palace and multiroom temple, associated with the rise of an archaic state at ca. 300−100 B.C. A fuller picture is now emerging from the site of El Palenque, where recent excavations have defined a temple precinct on the east side of the site’s plaza. This precinct exhibits characteristics similar to those of the temple precincts of later Mesoamerican states described by Colonial period sources. The excavation data document a walled enclosure containing three multiroom temples, two special residences identified as priests’ residences, and an array of ritual features and activity areas. The temple precinct’s components are interpreted as comprising a hierarchy of temples staffed by a specialized priesthood. A series of radiocarbon dates indicate that the precinct’s differentiated components were all in use during the 300−100 B.C. period of archaic state emergence. The El Palenque temple precinct is the earliest temple precinct excavated thus far in the Valley of Oaxaca.

War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare (review)

indigenous elites, the social, political, and symbolic significance attached to this use by natives as well as Europeans, and the comprehensible rather than irrational errors made by explorers in interpreting the fragmentary information they gathered regarding regional sources of gold. Ralegh, writes Whitehead, ‘‘transpires to be an imperfect ethnographer of Guianan metallurgical lore and ritual, rather than a mere fabricator of mythic empires of gold’’ (). For their part, Acephali, Amazons, and cannibals were all prefigured in the classical mythology carried across the Atlantic by European adventurers and projected onto native societies. But this comprises only half of the problem, since archeological and ethnological evidence reveals that precontact native cosmologies alsowere concerned with humanmonstrosities, with the proper conduct of women, and with the taboo of anthropophagy. In Ralegh’s accountWhitehead finds a convergence of native and European ideas that testifies to the ‘‘two-way, mutual character of cultural transmission, even from colonised [sic] to colonizer’’ (). Interpreted in this way, the early modern colonial text reclaims its ethnohistorical, as opposed to strictly literary, value. It is with no small irony then that Whitehead’s argument can be invoked to question the continuing fascination with accounts that purport to document the first contact between European and indigenous subjects. As he himself recognizes, the task of uncovering native tropes in colonial narratives ‘‘requires consideration of a much greater range of text’’ (), not merely Ralegh’s or Pané’s, Columbus’s or Cook’s. If Whitehead calls on scholars to apply a more subtle approach to the landmark documents of early modern European discovery and conquest, he also spurs on the reexamination of all sorts of minor documents for evidence of indigenous voices lurking within the imaginings of the most unlikely and seemingly insignificant colonists.