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This paper explores patterning in ceramic data from an Early Formative component at the site of La Joya, located in southern Veracruz, Mexico. The discussion uses ceramic paste characteristics, in [...]

In the Gulf lowlands, Late Classic fluctuations were concomitant with the increasing importance of the Classic Veracruz style complex. A characteristic feature of the style was ballgame imagery on ballcourt panels, molded ceramics, and paraphernalia such as yokes, hachas, and palmas, as well as courts, markers, and stelae. Components of the Classic Veracruz style have been documented for the Gulf lowlands and adjoining regions of Mesoamerica. Few examples, however, derive from stratigraphic excavations of in situ deposits. We document the discovery, excavation, and initial interpretation of a monument-yoke-offering complex at Matacanela, located in the south-central Tuxtla Mountains. We present suggestive evidence for associated decapitation ritual. We conclude by assessing these data and generating hypotheses regarding the transitioning of authority. We situate the Matacanela complex within regional demographic, political, and economic transformations that occurred throughout the Classic period (ca. a.d. 300–800/1000), culminating in disruptions that may have been contentious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, VanPool and VanPool (1999) propose that postprocessual archaeology can be construed as a scientific practice if archaeologists would simply adopt a "realistic view" of science. We argue that this […]

BARBARA L. STARK, editor. IMS Monograph, Vol. 12. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, University at Albany, Albany, 2001. vxiii + 393 pp., figures, tables, appendices, bibliography. $45.00 (paper). Mexico's Mixtequilla region [...]

Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have—intentionally or unintentionally— focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glosses over how alternative networks intersect with the former through common nodes. Models of long-distance interaction have largely ignored variation in how external influences are negotiated across space within the receiving region. We adapt Arjun Appadurai's concept of disjuncture to conceptualize how human groups negotiate cultural messages transmitted through multiscalar interaction networks. Disjuncture fundamentally refers to the decoupling of different facets of culture, economy, and politics where human interactions follow variable trajectories through space. The variability with which human groups reconcile foreign cultural information within local social networks leads to cultural diversity across space in the receiving region. We use the concept to detail the variability with which Teotihuacan symbols, ideology, and economic influences were adopted across the Tuxtlas region of southern Veracruz, Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early civilization has been envisioned as a child of agriculture, a product of the Neolithic revolution proposed by V. Gordon Childe. However, archaeological and ethnographic records worldwide are replete with complex huntergatherers who rely on both wild and domesticated resources. Researchers now recognize that mixed or largely nonagricultural subsistence practices frequently supported sedentary groups and larger complex societies before agriculture dominated subsistence around the world. This article builds on a mixed/nonagricultural model proposed by several authors for one of Mesoamerica's earliest complex societies, the Early Formative Olmec (1200-400 BC) of Mexico's southern Gulf Coast lowlands. Presentation of the nonagricultural model seeks to expand the lexicon of early subsistence in the tropical lowlands and introduces mixed subsistence hunter-fisher-gardeners for the early Gulf Coast lowlands in the millennia before the Olmec proper. Paleobotanical evidence of maize and Early Formative artifact assemblages are examined for goodness of fit with the mixed model at the Formative Olmec centers of San Lorenzo Tenochtilan and La Venta and related sites in Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico. Available data strongly recommend further testing of the nonagricultural model in the southern Gulf Coast lowlands and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent investigations at the site of Teotepec in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas in southern Veracruz, Mexico explored Middle Formative through Late Classic (1000 B.C-AD. 1000) socioeconomic conditions. A central focus was the form and function of the site's distinctive architectural configuration, the Long Plaza Group. During the 2007 and 2008 field sea- sons, a systematic geophysical surrey of Teotepec obtained initial information on the layout, orientation, and possible function of the site's central architectural core. Results from the surrey allow for a clear definition of the site's Long Plaza Group in addition to the identification of a possible ball court along its eastern edge. It is also clear that Teotepecans incorporated natural fratures into their architectural core by placing a pyramid atop a volcanic landform and modifying a natural basalt flow in order to create a level plaza. Finally, the geophysical data indicate significant time depth in architectural construction by suggesting different mound construction techniques, thus underscoring the importance of Teotepec as a persistent place in a region marked by significant population fluctuations in the Formative and Classic periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles Robert S. Santley who was an anthropology professor at the University of New Mexico. Santley enjoyed acquiring things such as multicomponent stereo system, string of mid-tier sports cars, Mesoamerican handicrafts, coins and electronic gadgets. It discusses that Stanley has a keen eye for logistics and organizational strategies. He enjoys and love archaeology and archeological researches. It also noted Robert Santley's Robert's Rules which is the basic rules of the game that structured his archaeological pursuits.

The article discusses findings of an archaeological research recently conducted within the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The archaeological data indicate a pattern of Early Formative lifeways that differed significantly from reconstructions of contemporaneous Gulf Olmec occupations. It notes that Tuxtlas were likely occupied by residentially mobile groups who practiced hunting, collecting, and fishing as their primary mode of subsistence. Such pattern was not changed until the Late Formative period that direct evidence for a sedentary, agrarian adaptation appeared within the Tuxtlas survey region.

Discusses the issue of ethnicity, pottery and cultural variation against the backdrop of the Gulf Olmec of southern Veracruz, Mexico. History of the approach using specific material to identify a particular culture; Role of pottery as index of culture; Features of the Gulf Olmec.

Recent surveys in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico, indicate that the region had a long history of occupation, beginning around 1400 B.C. and lasting until the Spanish Conquest. Settlement patterns during the Formative Period were largely unsegregated, with only nominal development of social complexity toward the end of the period, whereas those during the Classic Period were much more complex, with a well-developed settlement hierarchy, the growth of urban centers, a differentiated craft economy, and major contacts with highland Mesoamerica. Comparisons with surveys of comparable size from other parts of the south Gulf Coast show significant variability in population history, settlement patterns, and development of complex society. The settlement history of the south Gulf Coast was, therefore, not a homogeneous phenomenon, although resemblances in ceramic assemblage content and population history between the Tuxtlas and the Coatzacoalcos River valley suggest a closer relationship than with other areas of the Gulf Coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the evidence for specialized ceramics production at Matacapan, a large Classic-period site in the Tuxtlas Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The ceramics production system at Matacapan contained a larger number of production nodes. These production entities varied greatly in size, complexity, and internal differentiation, suggesting that there were major differences in the mode of production. Many of these production sites were highly specialized, emphasizing the manufacture of only a few ceramic wares and vessel forms. Pottery produced at Matacapan was also traded over comparatively long distances. The existence of a long-distance exchange process involving bulky goods implies that ceramics were moved by water transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]