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THE EARLY HORIZON AT TRES ZAPOTES: IMPLICATIONS FOR OLMEC INTERACTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2010

Christopher A. Pool ,
Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos ,
María del Carmen Rodríguez Martínez  and
Michael L. Loughlin
Christopher A. Pool*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506
Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos
Affiliation:
Departamento de Antropología, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México
María del Carmen Rodríguez Martínez
Affiliation:
Centro INAH Veracruz, Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico
Michael L. Loughlin
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506
*
E-mail correspondence to: capool0@uky.edu
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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.

Type
Special Section: Rethinking the Olmecs and Early Formative Mesoamerica
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Spring 2010 , pp. 95 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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