Kenneth G. Hirth

The Distributional Approach

Archaeologists working in Mesoamerica have long recognized the importance and antiquity of marketplaces and market exchange in the organization and integration of pre‐Hispanic society. Most approaches currently employed have, however, had difficulty in identifying pre‐Hispanic marketplaces using material remains. This study introduces a new way to identify marketplace exchange based on the composition of domestic assemblages and how they are affected by market‐based provisioning strategies. It identifies three distinguishing features of marketplace exchange: that households provision themselves independently of one another, that exchanges are concentrated in a centralized locale, and that economic interaction takes place without regard to social rank. The distribution of imported ceramics and locally produced obsidian tools in domestic contexts at the archaeological site of Xochicalco, Mexico, is compared with the expectations for marketplace exchange. The study concludes that marketplace exchange was an important feature of economic activity at Xochicalco between A.D. 650 and 900 and illustrates the potential value of the distributional approach for identifying prehistoric economic behavior in the archaeological record.

Political economy and archaeology: Perspectives on exchange and production

Traditional approaches to the study of political economy are flawed in two respects. First, traditional approaches have submerged political economy within a discussion of political development and the evolution of complex society. Second, they have emphasized single dimensions of the economy such as production or distribution of resources as being the basis for political power. Current research has demonstrated that political economies are a mix of many different resource mobilization strategies that crosscut the production, service, and distribution sectors of the society. Archaeologists must attempt to identify this mix of strategies as a first step in reconstructing the structure of prehistoric political economy. Elites strive to control and mobilize resources from as many different sources as possible and invoke a common set of principles in doing so. These principles or components of the political economy are the accumulation, context, matrix control, and ideology principles. They are identified here as common mechanisms of resource creation, manipulation, and expropriation that can be applied to societies at different times and at different levels of organization.

The Development of Prehispanic Cotton-Spinning Technology in Western Morelos, Mexico

AbstractCotton textiles played important economic, social, and political roles in the Prehispanic civilizations of Mesoamerica, yet archaeologists have made little progress in the analysis of textile production beyond the simple identification of spindle whorls. In this article we identify and describe whorls and a second artifactual marker of cotton spinning: ceramic spinning bowls. Quantitative changes in the occurrence of these artifacts in excavated contexts from the Mexican state of Morelos are then used to discuss the development of the local cotton industry from the Epiclassic through the Late Post classic periods. The Postclassic cultures of Morelos apparently produced a number of innovations in cotton-spinning technology, and these changes along with increased textile production levels are linked to demographic, economic, and political changes occurring throughout Central Mexico at that time.

LATE HOLOCENE STRATIGRAPHY OF THE TETIMPA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES, NORTHEAST FLANK OF POPOCATEPETL VOLCANO, CENTRAL MEXICO

Late Holocene (<2500 yr B.P.) tephras bury a sequence of pre-Hispanic archaeological sites in the Tetimpa area, on the northeast flank of Popocatepetl volcano. From measured stratigraphic sections, 14C dates, and isopach maps, this paper reconstructs the eruptive chronology and the regional extent of deposits associated with the Tetimpa archaeological sites. A regionally extensive paleosol defines the base of the late Holocene sequence in the Tetimpa area. Deposits from two periods of explosive volcanism unconformably overlie this paleosol. Eruptive sequence I was deposited at ca. 2100 yr B.P. and blanketed Late Tetimpa archaeological sites with 1–1.5 m of yellow andesitic (∼62% SiO2) pumice and locally with 20–40 m of olivine-bearing andesitic lavas. Isopach and isopleth maps of the pumice deposit suggest a Plinian-style eruption event that covered >240 km2 on the east side of the volcano with >25 cm of tephra. Lavas from eruptive sequence I dammed drainage in the lowland area near the town of San Nicolas and caused local upstream deposition of as much as 30 m of lacustrine silts, clays, and sands. These lacustrine deposits record an eruptive hiatus for the Tetimpa area of about 750 14C yr: between ca. 2100 and ca. 1350 yr B.P., no major tephras were deposited in the Tetimpa area. In upland areas, this time period is represented by an unconformity and by Entisols formed in the top of pumice deposits and lavas from eruptive sequence I. Artifacts, agricultural furrows, and dwellings record human reoccupation of this surface. At the end of this hiatus, several lahars were deposited above the lacustrine sequence and locally above the Entisol in upland positions adjacent to streams. Between ca. 1350 and ca. 1200 yr B.P., tephras from eruptive sequence II buried these paleosols, occupation sites, lacustrine sediments, and lahars. Andesitic (∼62% SiO2) pumice lapilli deposits in the Tetimpa area record three pumice-fall eruptions directed northeast and east of the crater. The first and smallest of these (maximum Tetimpa area thickness = 12 cm; >52 km2 covered by >25 cm) took place at ca. 1350 yr B.P. and was accompanied by pyroclastic surge events preserved in the Tetimpa area by charcoal, sand waves, and cross-stratified sand-sized tephra. At ca. 1200 yr B.P., the products of two Plinian-style events and additional pyroclastic surges reached the Tetimpa area. The largest of these tephra-fall events covered the Tetimpa area with 0.5–1 m of tephra and blanketed an area of >230 km2 with a thickness of >25 cm. The Tetimpa record confirms two of the four periods of explosive volcanism recognized by studies conducted around Popocatepetl in the past 30 yr. Eruptive sequence I corresponds to the explosive period between 2100 and 2500 yr B.P., and eruptive sequence II corresponds to the period between 900 and 1400 yr B.P. The archaeology and lacustrine stratigraphy of the Tetimpa area help constrain the timing of the Plinian phase of eruptive sequence I to ca. 2100 yr B.P. and suggest that the pumice-fall eruptions of eruptive sequence II took place in at least two intervals between ca. 1350 and ca. 1200 yr B.P.

Ecological Theory and Cultural Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca [and Comments and Reply]

A number of researchers have recently challenged the usefulness of cultural ecology for explaining pre-Hispanic ultural evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca. We address those criticisms and attempt to show how a rather traditional ecological model is at least consonant with the data. Our aim is not so much to demonstrate the greater explanatory power of our model in comparison with the arguments of the researchers of the Valley of Oaxaca projects as to show that the published data do not permit he rejection of either.

EXPLORING FORMATIVE PERIOD OBSIDIAN BLADE TRADE: THREE DISTRIBUTION MODELS

Abstract Obsidian prismatic blades were widely traded across Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Formative periods. However, it was not until the Late Formative period (400 b.c.—a.d. 100) that prismatic blade cores began to be exchanged extensively. Although it is generally accepted that the trading of blades preceded the trading of cores by almost 1,000 years, little is know about the structure of blade trading during the Early and Middle Formative periods. We describe three distributional models for the trade of obsidian prismatic blades: whole-blade trade, processed-blade trade, and local-blade production. These models were evaluated using obsidian consumption data from Oaxaca, the Basin of Mexico, and Tlaxcala. The results indicate that Formative period blade trade involved different forms over time and space.

Teotihuacan regional population administration in eastern Morelos.

Abstract The Teotihuacan state expanded throughout Central Mexico around A.D. 200 creating a large sustaining hinterland for the support of its large urban centre. Teotihuacan influence is very str...

Settlement and Cultural Development at Chalcatzingo

Some of the earliest developments of social stratification and complex religious practices in Mesoamerica can be traced to the Olmec culture that existed on Mexicos southem Gulf Coast from about 1150 to 550 B.C. Possibly due to a belief that complex cultures cannot arise in tropical environments, some scholars have attributed Olmec origins to other regions and other cultures; however, the pre-Olmec stratigraphic sequence recently uncovered at San Lorenzo (1) suggests that Olmec cultural development is basically indigenous to the Gulf Coast region. Other new data indicate that we must not credit Olmec culture alone for developments in social and religious complexity early in the Formative period. Parallel developments may have taken place at least as early in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and possibly even western Mexico (2). By 1150 B.C., however, stylistic motifs that many scholars identify as Olmec were used on ceramics in widespread areas of Mesoamerica, and by 900 B.C. both portable and monumental 01mec-style stone art could be found in areas far distant from the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast. The actual nature of this cultural diffusion and the manner of its acceptance in other regions is still unclear and raises a number of questions. For instance, was cultural development in these other regions stimulated or influenced by Olmec culture? In this article we discuss research conducted at a major Formative period archeological site in highland central Mexi-

The economy of supply: modeling obsidian procurement and craft provisioning at a Central Mexican urban center

This article examines the way that obsidian craftsmen at Xochicalco, Mexico obtained the raw material needed to produce prismatic blades at the site between A.D. 650 and 900. The paper models seven different forms of direct, indirect, and institutional procurement that craftsmen could have used to obtain this obsidian. These seven procurement models are evaluated using two types of information collected from four domestic workshops: (1) source analysis (NAA, PIXE) to identify where obsidian came from, and (2) technological analysis to determine the form in which obsidian entered workshops. The results indicate that Xochicalco craftsmen most likely were provisioned through itinerant craftsmen who periodically visited Xochicalco. Pressure cores nearing exhaustion were sold to Xochicalco craftsmen who rejuvenated them to produce additional prismatic blades using a hand-held blade removal technology. The results indicate that: (1) different forms of craft provisioning can be differentiated when multiple forms of data are incorporated into the distributional approach, (2) independent domestic craft specialists were the foundation for Mesoamerican economy and were individually responsible for the procurement of raw materials and the distribution of finished products, and (3) neither state institutions, nor the elite who directed them, were involved in the procurement of obsidian for craft specialists who produced valued tools.

CRAFT PRODUCTION IN A CENTRAL MEXICAN MARKETPLACE

Abstract The marketplace was an important institution for household provisioning and elite resource conversion in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Despite their importance, marketplaces are difficult to identify because exchange relationships are generally invisible in the archaeological record. This study examines the evidence for marketplaces at the Epiclassic period site of Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico. It explores the role of craft production in the marketplace as a possible indicator of market activity. Excavations in a suspected market area at Xochicalco uncovered evidence for the production of obsidian prismatic blades on the floor of a public plaza. The results of these explorations are discussed and it is concluded that craft production can be a useful indicator for market activity if production debitage is found in primary contexts in public plazas.