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Early Formative Pottery Production, Mobility, and Exchange on the Pacific Coast of Southern Mexico

2011; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15564894.2011.580833

1556-1828

Josue Gomez, Douglas J. Kennett, Héctor Neff, Michael D. Glascock, Barbara Voorhies,

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

ABSTRACT In this article we report ceramic stylistic and compositional (Instrumental Neutron Activation-INAA) data from two Early Formative Period (3,400–2,800 cal yrs. BP) coastal sites from the Acapetahua region of southern Mexico, datasets potentially sensitive to the study of the exchange of ideas and materials. Gourd-shaped vessels (tecomates) with red slips dominate the earliest ceramic assemblages at the two sites. The compositional comparison of these early ceramics with reference clay samples indicates that this pottery was manufactured locally. Grey, black, and white wares appear in the assemblage ∼3,000 cal yrs. BP and the number of serving bowls substantially increases. Most of these ceramics were also manufactured locally, but imported wares from farther south and the north from the Gulf Coast lowlands were also identified suggesting some connectivity within an emerging long-distance exchange network. Given the position of these settlements we hypothesize that the movement of people, goods and ideas was facilitated by water travel along the southern Pacific Coast of Mesoamerica. Keywords: Mesoamericaceramic analysisInstrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA)Soconuscowatercraft ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This article is part of a broader research program in the Acapetahua region funded by a National Science Foundation grant (BCS-0211215, Kennett). We thank the community at La Palma, Chiapas and the local excavation crew. Special thanks to John Clark and the New World Archaeological Foundation for logistical support during our field campaign and for allowing the use of Izapa Stela 67 image. We appreciate and value the comments of our anonymous reviewers who provided valuable and useful input for the improvement of this paper. We also thank the staff that facilitated the INAA analysis and access to provenance databases at MURR. Permission to work on these sites was granted by the National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico. Notes 1. The dates in this paper are expressed in calibrated calendar years before present (BP). 2. We acknowledge the many problems with a single definition for Olmec. In this paper we use the term in a broad sense, to refer to distinct groups of people that shared specific forms of representation portrayed in material culture. We use the term Olmec style in this same way. The term "Olmecs" is used to refer specifically to the peoples who produced the specific material and cultural expressions taking place in the Gulf Coast during the Early and Middle Formative in and around the site of San Lorenzo.