Jeffrey P. Blomster

Smokescreens in the Provenance Investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican Ceramics

We are glad that Sharer et al. (this issue) have dropped their original claim that the INAA data demonstrate multidirec tional movement of Early Formative pottery. Beyond this, however, they offer nothing that might enhance understanding of Early Formative ceramic circulation or inspire new insights into Early Formative cultural evolution in Mesoamerica. Instead, their response contains fresh distortions, replications of mistakes made in their PNAS articles, and lengthy pas sages that are irrelevant to the issues raised by Neff et al. (this issue). We correct and recorrect their latest distortions and misunderstandings here. Besides showing why their discussion of ceramic sourcing repeatedly misses the mark, we also correct a number of erroneous assertions about the archaeology of Olmec San Lorenzo. New evidence deepens understanding of Early Formative Mesoamerica but requires that some researchers discard cherished beliefs.

Obsidian procurement in formative Oaxaca, Mexico: Diachronic changes in political economy and interregional interaction

Abstract Throughout Mesoamerica, archaeologists have found that compositional sourcing analysis of obsidian provides a valuable indicator of interregional interaction and political economy. We recently sourced obsidian from two different periods, the Early Formative (1200/1150–850 B.C.) and Middle/Late Formative (500–300 B.C.), at Etlatongo in the Nochixtlán Valley of the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore diachronic changes in its procurement. Villagers consumed obsidian in a variety of ways. For the Early Formative, villagers accessed obsidian from a surprising range of sources, while focusing on a central Mexican one. Samples from two earlier sites, Yucuita, in the Mixteca Alta, and Rancho Dolores Ortíz, in an adjacent region, were also analyzed in order to contextualize changes at Etlatongo. The Middle/Late Formative obsidian sample from Etlatongo shows less reliance on one source but a consistent central Mexican focus, and is compared with recent samples from the major Zapotec urban center in the Valley of Oaxaca, Monte Albán, and the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as well as with previous samples from those regions and the Lower Río Verde Valley. These comparisons reveal changes and continuity in the obsidian sources utilized as well as the nature of distribution, interaction, and competition among and within regions.

Early evidence of the ballgame in Oaxaca, Mexico.

As a defining characteristic of Mesoamerican civilization, the ballgame has a long and poorly understood history. Because the ballgame is associated with the rise of complex societies, understanding its origins also illuminates the evolution of socio-politically complex societies. Although initial evidence, in the form of ceramic figurines, dates to 1700 BCE, and the oldest known ballcourt dates to 1600 BCE, the ritual paraphernalia and ideology associated with the game appear around 1400 BCE, the start of the so-called Early Horizon, defined by the spread of Olmec-style symbols across Mesoamerica. Early Horizon evidence of ballgame paraphernalia both identical to and different from that of the Gulf Coast Olmec can be seen on figurines from coastal Chiapas and the central highlands of Mexico, respectively. The Mexican state of Oaxaca, however, has yielded little data on early involvement in the ballgame. The discovery of a ballplayer figurine in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca demonstrates the early participation of this region in the iconography and ideology of the ballgame. In lieu of an actual ballcourt, the focus may have been on the symbolic component of ballplayers and their association with supernatural forces, as part of emerging leaders’ legitimization strategies.

Complexity, Interaction, and Epistemology: Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Olmecs in Early Formative Mesoamerica

Abstract Interaction between the Gulf Coast Olmecs and various regions of Early Formative Mesoamerica remains debated and poorly understood. In Oaxaca, models have been dominated by neoevolutionary epistemology; interaction between the Valley of Oaxaca and San Lorenzo has been characterized by emulation or peer polity models. Data from the Valley of Oaxaca, the Nochixtlán Valley, and the Gulf Coast demonstrate that San Lorenzo was at a different level of sociopolitical complexity than its contemporaries. Previous comparisons between Olmec-style pottery in the Gulf Coast and Valley of Oaxaca are found to be problematic, and have led to the impression that Oaxaca villagers produced more of this pottery than did the Olmecs. Neutron activation analysis demonstrates the Gulf Coast Olmecs exported ceramics to Mixtecs and Zapotecs in Oaxaca, while receiving few if any pots in return, suggesting that new models and theoretical perspectives must be applied to understanding the relationships between Oaxacan chiefdoms and the nascent Olmec state at San Lorenzo. An agency perspective explores what Mixtec, Zapotec, and Olmec groups may have taken from these interactions and relationships and acknowledges both local and Gulf Coast understandings of “Olmec.” Such relationships may be characterized more by acquisition between regions, with San Lorenzo as a superordinate center.

The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery (review)

goddess Toci. Because die missionaries assumed a similarity between the Mexica deities and those of classical Rome and Greece, these representations instantly created a concern. Their deepest worry was that this native goddess of modierhood and nurturing would be confused with Christian mother figures, including the Virgin Mary, St. Anne, and others. In her final chapter, DiCesare studies the particulars of the festival of Ochpaniztli and its description in the Borbonicus and posits that die depiction does not represent an archetype but rather a specific celebration linked to a series of conditions that obtained shortly before the arrival of the Spanish.