Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T03:22:27.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SHIFTING PATTERNS OF OBSIDIAN EXCHANGE IN POSTCLASSIC OAXACA, MEXICO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Marc N. Levine ,
Arthur A. Joyce  and
Michael D. Glascock
Marc N. Levine*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO 80205
Arthur A. Joyce
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Hale Building, Campus Box 233, Boulder, CO 80309-0233
Michael D. Glascock
Affiliation:
230 Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211
*
E-mail correspondence to: marc.levine@dmns.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, we present a diachronic analysis of obsidian procurement patterns during the Postclassic period in the Lower Río Verde region of Oaxaca. The study is based on x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and visual analysis of obsidian artifacts from excavated household contexts at Early Postclassic (a.d. 800–1100) Río Viejo and Late Postclassic (a.d. 1100–1522) Tututepec (Yucu Dzaa). We report the presence of at least six sources of obsidian imported to the lower Río Verde region in the Early Postclassic, whereas during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the Late Postclassic, the local assemblage was dominated by obsidian from Pico de Orizaba and Pachuca. Changes in obsidian procurement patterns in the lower Río Verde region through time are interpreted in light of sociopolitical change at the local, regional, and macroregional scales. The study represents the most detailed analysis of Postclassic period obsidian exchange yet reported from Oaxaca.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 123 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Appadurai, Arjun 1986 Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value. In The Social Life of Things, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, pp. 3–63. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Barber, Sarah B. 2005 Heterogeneity, Identity, and Complexity: Negotiating Status and Authority in Terminal Formative Coastal Oaxaca. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Barber, Sarah B., and Joyce, Arthur A. 2007 Polity Produced and Community Consumed: Negotiating Political Centralization Through Ritual in the lower Río Verde Valley Oaxaca. In Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, edited by Wells, E. Christian and Davis-Salazar, Karla L., pp. 221–244. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth Hill 2003 A Web of Understanding: Pictorial Codices and the Shared Intellectual Culture of Late Postclassic Mesoamerica. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 207–221. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey E. 2003 Obsidian Exchange Spheres. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 131–158. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey E., Clark, John E., Aoyama, Kazuo, McKillop, Heather I., and Glascock, Michael D. 2000 Determining the Geological Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from the Maya Region: A Test of the Efficacy of Visual Sourcing. Latin American Antiquity 11:269–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byland, Bruce E. 1980 Political and Economic Evolution in the Tamazulapan Valley, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Regional Approach. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1989 Obsidian: The Primary Mesoamerican Sources. In La Obsidiana en Mesoamérica, edited by Gaxiola, Margarita and Clark, John E., pp. 299–319. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 2003 A Review of Twentieth-Century Mesoamerican Obsidian Studies. In Mesoamerican Lithic Technology: Experimentation and Interpretation, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 15–54. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Cobean, Robert H. 2002 Un mundo de obsidiana: Minería y comercio de un vidrio volcánico en el México antiguo (A World of Obsidian: The Mining and Trade of a Volcanic Glass in Ancient Mexico). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and The University of Pittsburgh, Mexico City and Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Daneels, Annick 1997 Settlement in the Lower Cotaxtla Basin. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Stark, Barbara L. and Arnold, Philip J. III, pp. 206–252. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Durán, Diego 1971 The Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Forde, Jamie E. 2006 Ideology, Identity, and Icons: A Study of Mixtec Polychrome Pottery from Late Postclassic Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), Oaxaca, Mexico. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Glascock, Michael D. 2006 X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from Río Viejo and Tututepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, Columbia, MO. Report on file at MURR and the University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Grove, David, and Gillespie, Susan 1991 Ideology and Evolution at the Pre-State Level: Formative Period Mesoamerica. In Ideology and Pre-Columbian Civilizations, edited by Demarest, Arthur A. and Conrad, Geoffrey W., pp. 15–36. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Haines, Helen, Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 2004 Household Economic Specialization and Social Differentiation: The Stone-tool Assemblage at El Palmillo, Oaxaca. Ancient Mesoamerica 15:251–266.Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1985 Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Healan, Dan M. 1993 Local versus Non-Local Obsidian Exchange at Tula and Its Implications for Post-Formative Mesoamerica. World Archaeology 24:449–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healan, Dan M. 1998 La cerámica Coyotlatelco y la explotación del yacimiento de obsidiana de Ucareo-Zinapécuaro. In Génesis, cultura, y espacios en Michoacán, edited by Darras, Veronique, pp.102–111. Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Heijting, Femke 2006 Cotton Thread Production in Late Postclassic Tututepec: A Study of Excavated Spindle Whorls, Tututepec Archaeological Project 2005. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Leiden, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Hepp, Guy David 2011 The Material Culture of Incipient Social Complexity in Coastal Oaxaca: The Ceramics of La Consentida. Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento, CA.Google Scholar
Jansen, Maarten, and Jiménez, Gabina Aurora Pérez 2007 Encounter with the Plumed Serpent: Drama and Power in the Heart of Mesoamerica. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Johnson, Nicholas 1997 The Route from the Mixteca Alta into Southern Puebla on the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec. In Códices y documentos sobre México: Segundo Simposio, edited by Smithers, Salvador Rueda and Sosa, Constanza Vega, pp. 233–268. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Josserand, J. Kathryn, Jansen, Maarten, and Romero, Angeles 1984 Mixtec Dialectology: Inferences from Linguistics and Ethnohistory. In Essays in Otomanguean Culture History, edited by Josserand, J. Kathryn, Winter, Marcus, and Hopkins, Nicholas, pp. 141–163. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 31. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 1991a Formative Period Occupation in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: Interregional Interaction and Social Change. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 1991b Formative Period Social Change in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 2:126–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 1993 Interregional Interaction and Social Development on the Oaxaca Coast. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 2005 La arqueología del bajo Río Verde. Acervos 7(29):16–36.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 2010 Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: The Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico. Wiley-Blackwell Press, Malden, MA.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. (editor) 1999 El Proyecto Patrones de Asentamiento del Río Verde. Report submitted to the Consejo de Arqueología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A., and King, Stacie M. 2001 Household Archaeology in Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. Final Report Submitted to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., Crystal River, FL.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A., Bustamante, Laura Arnaud, and Levine, Marc N. 2001 Commoner Power: A Case Study from the Classic Period “Collapse” on the Oaxaca Coast. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8:343–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A., Elam, J. Michael, Glascock, Michael D., Neff, Hector, and Winter, Marcus 1995 Exchange Implications of Obsidian Source Analysis from the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 6:3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A., Workinger, Andrew G., Hamann, Byron, Kroefges, Peter, Oland, Maxine, and King, Stacie M. 2004 Lord 8 Deer “Jaguar Claw” and the Land of the Sky: The Archaeology and History of Tututepec. Latin American Antiquity 15:273–297.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A., Winter, Marcus, and Mueller, Raymond G. 1998 Arqueología de la costa de Oaxaca: Asentamientos del periodo formativo en el valle del Río Verde inferior. Centro Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia-Oaxaca, Oaxaca.Google Scholar
King, Stacie M. 2003 Social Practices and Social Organization in Ancient Coastal Oaxacan Households (Mexico). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
King, Stacie M. 2008 Interregional Networks of the Oaxacan Early Postclassic: Connecting the Coast and the Highlands. In After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico, edited by Blomster, Jeffrey P., pp. 255–291. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1996 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, Frederick W. (editor) 1993 Precolumbian Jade: New Geological and Cultural Interpretations. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc N. 2006a Residential Excavations at Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), a Late Postclassic Mixtec Capital on the Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Final Report of the Tututepec Archaeological Project (TAP) submitted to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc., Crystal River, FL.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc N. 2006b Preliminary Findings from Residential Excavations at Tututepec, a Late Postclassic Mixtec Capital on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca. Paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Juan, Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc N. 2007 Linking Household and Polity at Late Postclassic Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), A Mixtec Capital on the Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc N. 2011 Negotiating Political Economy at Late Postclassic Tututepec (Yucu Dzaa), Oaxaca, Mexico. American Anthropologist 113:22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Marc N., Joyce, Arthur A., and Glascock, Michael D. 2007 Examining Postclassic Change in Obsidian Procurement Patterns and the Rise of Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), Oaxaca. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas.Google Scholar
McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 1996 Reinterpreting the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 7:1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 2007 So What Else Is New? A Cholula-centric Perspective on Lowland/Highland Interaction during the Classic/Postclassic Transition. In Twin Tollans: Chichen Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Kowalski, Jeff Karl and Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, pp. 449–479. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula 2003 Source Attribution and the Utilization of Obsidian in the Maya Area. Latin American Antiquity 14:301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Mack, Scott 1990 Reconocimiento arqueológico en Tututepec, Oaxaca. Notas Mesoamericanas 12:19–38.Google Scholar
Parry, William J. 1990 Postclassic Chipped Stone Tools From the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: Indications of Differential Access to Obsidian. In Nuevos enfoques en el estudio de la lítica, edited by de Arechavaleta, Maria de los Dolores Soto, pp. 331–345. Universidad Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R., Brumfiel, Elizabeth M., Parsons, Mary H., and Wilson, David J. 1982 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Southern Valley of Mexico: The Chalco-Xochimilco Region. Memoirs No. 14. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro 1998 La explotación azteca de la obsidiana en la Sierra de las Navajas. Colección Científica 383. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro 2002 Variation at the Source: Obsidian Exploitation at Sierra de Las Navajas, Mexico. In Pathways to Prismatic Blades: A Study in Mesoamerican Obsidian Core-Blade Technology, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Andrews, Bradford, pp. 15–26. Monograph No. 45, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro 2007 La distribución de obsidiana de la Triple Alianza en la Cuenca de México. Colección Científica 517. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Pérez Rodríguez, Verónica 2003 Household Intensification and Agrarian States: Excavation of Houses and Terraced Fields in a Mixtec Cacicazgo. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D. 1994 Weaving and Gift Exchange in the Mixtec Codices. In Cloth and Curing: Continuity and Exchange in Oaxaca, edited by Johnson, Grace and Sharon, Douglas, pp. 3–14. San Diego Museum of Man, California.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D. 2003a Creation Stories, Hero Cults, and Alliance Building: Confederacies of Central and Southern Mexico. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 61–66. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D. 2003b Royal Marriage and Confederacy Building among the Eastern Nahuas, Mixtecs, and Zapotecs. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 243–248. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D., Monaghan, John, and Stiver, Laura R. 1997 Religion, Economy, and Factionalism in Mixtec Boundary Zones. In Códices y documentos sobre México: Segundo simposio, edited by Smithers, Salvador Rueda, Sosa, Constanza Vega, and Baracs, Rodrigo Martínez, pp. 205–232. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen Perlstein, and Smith, Michael E. 2003 The Aztec/Tarascan Border. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 87–90. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Ponomarenko, Allyson Lighthart 2004 The Pachuca Obsidian Source, Hidalgo, Mexico: A Geoarchaeological Perspective. Geoarchaeology 19:71–91.Google Scholar
Ringle, William M., Negrón, Tomás Gallareta, and Bey, George J. III 1998 The Return of Quetzalcoatl: Evidence for the Spread of a World Religion During the Epiclassic Period. Ancient Mesoamerica 9:183–232.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1973 Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Berdan, Frances F. 1992 Archaeology and the Aztec Empire. World Archaeology 23:353–367.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., Burke, Adrian L., Hare, Timothy S., and Glascock, Michael D. 2007 Sources of Imported Obsidian at Postclassic Sites in the Yautepec Valley, Morelos: A Characterization Study Using XRF and INAA. Latin American Antiquity 18:429–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spence, Michael 1996 Commodity or Gift: Teotihuacan Obsidian in the Maya Region. Latin American Antiquity 7:21–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spores, Jonathan 2006 Apéndice 2. Análisis e identificación de procedencia de artefactos de obsidiana del pueblo viejo de Teposcolula Yucundaa. In Proyecto arqueológico en el pueblo viejo de Teposcolula, Temporada 2006, edited by Spores, Ronald and García, Nelly M. Robles, pp. 574–584. Unpublished Report Submitted to the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú, Oaxaca, Mexico.Google Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1974 Marital Alliances in the Political Integration of Mixtec Kingdoms. American Anthropologist 76:297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1993 Tututepec: A Postclassic-Period Mixtec Conquest State. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:167–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Reimer, Paula J. 2006 Calib Radiocarbon Calibration Program (Calib Rev 5.1beta software). Electronic document, http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier, and Joyce, Arthur A. 2001 Carved Monuments and Calendrical Names: The Rulers of Río Viejo, Oaxaca. Ancient Mesoamerica 12:199–216.Google Scholar
Winter, Marcus 1989 La obsidiana en Oaxaca prehispánica. In La obsidiana en Mesoamérica, edited by Gaxiola, Margarita and Clark, John E., pp. 345–361. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Workinger, Andrew G. 2002 Coastal/Highland Interaction in Prehispanic Oaxaca, Mexico: The Perspective from San Francisco de Arriba. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Judith F. 2005 Cultural Politics in Colonial Tehuantepec: Community and State among the Isthmus Zapotec, 1500–1750. Stanford University Press, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeitlin, Robert N. 1982 Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Interregional Commodity Distribution: Political Variables and Prehispanic Obsidian Procurement in Mesoamerica. American Antiquity 47:260–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar