Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T17:36:58.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

LITHIC ECONOMIES AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AT LA LAGUNA, TLAXCALA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2016

David P. Walton  and
David M. Carballo
David P. Walton*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, Lake-Sumter State College, 9501 U.S. Highway 441, Leesburg, Florida 34788
David M. Carballo
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
*
E-mail: WaltonD@lssc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Site-wide, assemblage-based lithic analyses help to elucidate community dynamics including variability in domestic economies, technological skill and decision making, exchange networks, and ritual practices. In this study we present the results of an analysis of over 36,000 lithic artifacts from the site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala. We compare Middle to Late Formative period (ca. 600–400 b.c.) and Terminal Formative period (ca. 100 b.c.–a.d. 150) deposits to examine transformations associated with urbanization and state formation during this interval. The residents of La Laguna had relatively equal and ample access to obsidian, and most production was organized independently by households. We identify blade production zones and variability in consumption patterns suggestive of different domestic, communal, and ceremonial activities. The introduction of bloodletters, elaborate large bifacial knives, and zoomorphic eccentrics to the Terminal Formative assemblage may indicate the emergence of higher statuses, new social roles, and militaristic symbolism during this period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 2016 , pp. 109 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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

Aldenderfer, Mark S., Kimball, Larry R., and Sievert, April 1989 Microwear Analysis in the Maya Lowlands: The Use of Functional Data in a Complex-Society Setting. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:47–60.Google Scholar
Aoyama, Kazuo 1995 Microwear Analysis in the Southeast Maya Lowlands: Two Case Studies at Copán, Honduras. Latin American Antiquity 6:129–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aoyama, Kazuo 1999 Ancient Maya State, Urbanism, Exchange, and Craft Specialization: Chipped Stone Evidence from the Copán Valley and the La Entrada Region, Honduras. Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology 12. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Aoyama, Kazuo 2009 Elite Craft Producers, Artists, and Warriors at Aguateca: Lithic Analysis. Monographs of the Aguateca Archaeological Project First Phase, Vol. 2. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Barba de Piña Chán, Beatríz 1956 Tlapacoya. Un sitio preclásico de transición. Departamento de Turismo, Toluca, México.Google Scholar
Blanco, Mónica 1998 La obsidiana de Xochitécatl. In Antropología e historia del occidente de México, XXIV Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, edited by R. Brambila Paz, pp. 1719–1732. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, City.Google Scholar
Boksenbaum, Martin W. 1980 Basic Mesoamerican Lithic Technology: Nodule Smashing. Lithic Technology 9:12–26.Google Scholar
Borejsza, Aleksander 2006 Agricultural Slope Management and Soil Erosion in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Borejsza, Aleksander, Frederick, Charles D., and Lesure, Richard G. 2011 Swidden Agriculture in the Tierra Fría? Evidence from Sedimentary Records in Tlaxcala. Ancient Mesoamerica 22:91–106.Google Scholar
Borejsza, Aleksander, López, Isabel Rodríguez, Frederick, Charles D., and Bateman, Mark D. 2008 Agricultural Slope Management and Soil Erosion at La Laguna, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science 35:1854–1866.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2007 Effigy Vessels, Religious Integration, and the Origins of the Central Mexican Pantheon. Ancient Mesoamerica 18:53–67.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2009 Household and Status in Formative Central Mexico: Domestic Structures, Assemblages, and Practices at La Laguna, Tlaxcala. Latin American Antiquity 20:473–501.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2011a Obsidian and the Teotihuacan State: Weaponry and Ritual Production at the Moon Pyramid./ La obsidiana y el estado teotihuacano: la producción militar y ritual en la Pirámide de la Luna. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology, No. 21. Center for Comparative Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2011b Advances in the Household Archaeology of Highland Mesoamerica. Journal of Archaeological Research 19:133–189.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2012 Public Ritual and Urbanization in Central Mexico: Temple and Plaza Offerings from La Laguna, Tlaxcala. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22:329–352.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2014 Obsidian Symbolism in a Temple Offering from La Laguna, Tlaxcala. In Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic and Ritual Uses of Obsidian in Mesoamerica, edited by Levine, Marc N. and Carballo, David M., pp. 195–222. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, David M., Carballo, Jennifer, and Lesure, Richard G. 2014b Houses of Style: Consumption, Adornment, and Identity in Formative Tlaxcalan Households. Ancient Mesoamerica 25:459–476.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M., Barba, Luis, Ortíz, Agustín, Blancas, Jorge, Barrera, Jorge H. Toledo, and Cingolani, Nicole 2011 La Laguna, Tlaxcala: ritual y urbanización en el formativo. Revista Teccalli 2:1–11.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M., Barba, Luis, Ortíz, Agustín, Blancas, Jorge, Cingolani, Nicole, Barrera, Jorge H. Toledo, Walton, David, López, Isabel Rodríguez, and Couoh, Lourdes 2014a Suprahousehold Consumption and Community Ritual at La Laguna, Mexico. Antiquity 88:141–159.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M., and Pluckhahn, Thomas 2007 Transportation Corridors and Political Evolution in Highland Mesoamerica: Settlement Analyses Incorporating GIS for Northern Tlaxcala, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:607–629.Google Scholar
Castanzo, Ronald A., and Sheehy, James J. 2004 The Formative Period Civic-Ceremonial Centre of Xochiltenango in Mexico. Antiquity 78(301):Project Gallery. Electronic document, http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/castanzo301/, accessed January 2012.Google Scholar
Charlton, Thomas H., Grove, David C., and Hopke, Philip K. 1978 The Paredón, Mexico, Obsidian Source and Early Formative Exchange. Science 201:807–809.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1982 Manufacture of Mesoamerican Prismatic Blades: An Alternative Technique. American Antiquity 47:355–376.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1985 Platforms, Bits, Punches and Vises: A Potpourri of Mesoamerican Blade Technology. Lithic Technology 14:1–15.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1987 Politics, Prismatic Blades, and Mesoamerican Civilization. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by Johnson, Jay K. and Morrow, Carol A., pp. 259–285. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Clark, John E., and Bryant, Douglas Donne 1997 A Technological Typology of Prismatic Blades and Debitage from Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:111–136.Google Scholar
Clark, John E., and Lee, Thomas A. Jr. 1979 A Behavioral Model for the Obsidian Industry of Chiapa de Corzo. Estudios de la Cultura Maya 12:33–51.Google Scholar
Cobean, Robert H. 2002 A World of Obsidian: The Mining and Trade of a Volcanic Glass in Ancient Mexico. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Crabtree, Don E. 1968 Mesoamerican Polyhedral Cores and Prismatic Blades. American Antiquity 33:446–478.Google Scholar
Darras, Véronique 2009 Peasant Artisans: Household Prismatic Blade Production in the Zacapu Region, Michoacan (Milpillas Phase 1200–1450 a.d.). In Housework: Specialization, Risk, and Domestic Craft Production in Mesoamerica, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 92–114. Archaeological Papers No. 19. American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
De León, Jason P., Hirth, Kenneth G., and Carballo, David M. 2009 Exploring Formative Period Obsidian Blade Trade: Three Distribution Models. Ancient Mesoamerica 20:113–128.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., Nicholas, Linda M., and Haines, Helen R. 2002 Houses on a Hill: Classic Period Domestic Life at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 13:251–277.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., Nicholas, Linda M., and Haines, Helen R. 2006 Socioeconomic Inequality and the Consumption of Chipped Stone at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 17:151–175.Google Scholar
Fowler, Melvin L. 1987 Early Water Management at Amalucan, State of Puebla, Mexico. National Geographic Research 3:52–68.Google Scholar
García Cook, Ángel 1981 The Historical Importance of Tlaxcala in the Cultural Development of the Central Highlands. In Archaeology, edited by Sabloff, Jeremy A., pp. 244–276. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 1. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
García Cook, Ángel, Tenorio, Dolores, Jiménez-Reyes, Melania, Monroy-Guzmán, Fabiola, and López-Reyes, Claudia 2010 Estudio de procedencia de obsidiana arqueológica de Cantona, Puebla. Arqueología 43:217–229.Google Scholar
García Cook, Ángel, and Rodríguez, Felipe 1975 Excavaciones arqueológicos en “Guadalupita las Dalias,” Puebla. Comunicaciones 12:1–8. Fundación Alemana para la Investigación Científica, Puebla.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1987 Ancient Chalcatzingo. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Haines, Helen R., 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
Healan, Dan M. 2012 The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 20:53–115.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2006 Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2008 Household, Community, and Craft Specialization in a Middle Formative Chiefdom: Reappraising the Importance of the Chalcatzingo Archaeological Project. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2009 Housework: Specialization, Risk, and Domestic Craft Production in Mesoamerica. Archaeological Papers No. 19. American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., Cyphers, Ann, Cobean, Robert, De León, Jason, and Glascock, Michael D. 2013 Early Olmec Obsidian Trade and Economic Organization at San Lorenzo. Journal of Archaeological Science 40:2784–2798.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Andrews, Bradford W. 2002 Pathways to Prismatic Blades: A Study in Mesoamerican Obsidian Core-Blade Technology. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Andrews, Bradford W. 2006 Craft Specialization and Craftsman Skill. In Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 258–274. University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Flenniken, J. Jeffrey 2006 Appendix A: The Analytical Categories for Xochicalco's Lithic Terminology. In Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 301–314. University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hruby, Zachary X. 2007 Ritualized Chipped-Stone Production at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 17:68–87.Google Scholar
Kabata, Shigeru, and Murakami, Tatsuya 2013 Proyecto Arqueológico Tlalancaleca, Puebla: Informe Técnico de la Primera Temporada 2012–2013. Manuscript on file, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Knight, Charles L. F., and Glascock, Michael D. 2009 The Terminal Formative to Classic Period Obsidian Assemblage at Palo Errado, Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 20:507–524.Google Scholar
Lesure, Richard, Borejsza, Aleksander, Carballo, Jennifer, Frederick, Charles, Popper, Virginia, and Wake, Thomas 2006 Chronology, Subsistence, and the Earliest Formative of Central Tlaxcala, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 17:474–492.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc N., and Carballo, David M. 2014 Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic and Ritual Uses of Obsidian in Mesoamerica. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Macneish, Richard, Nelken-Terner, Antoinette, and Johnson, Irmgard W. 1967 The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, Volume Two: Non-Ceramic Artifacts. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Carrión, Merino, Leonor, Beatriz 1989 La cultura tlaxco. Colección Científica 174. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México City.Google Scholar
Millhauser, John K., Fargher, Lane F., Espinoza, Verenice Y. Heredia, and Blanton, Richard E. 2015 The Geopolitics of Obsidian Supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan: A Portable X-ray Fluorescence Study. Journal of Archaeological Science 58:133–146.Google Scholar
Niederberger, Christine 1976 Zohapilco, cinco milenios de ocupación humana en un sitio lacustre de la Cuenca de México. Colección Científica No. 30. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Niederberger, Christine 2000 Ranked Societies, Iconographic Complexity, and Economic Wealth in the Basin of Mexico Toward 1200 b.c. In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by Clark, John E. and Pye, Mary E., pp. 169–191. National Gallery of Art, Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 58. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Odell, George H. 2000 Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Procurement and Technology. Journal of Archaeological Research 8:269–331.Google Scholar
Parry, William J. 1987 Chipped Stone Tools in Formative Oaxaca, Mexico: Their Procurement, Production and Use. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, No. 20. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Parsons, Mary H. 1990 Maguey Utilization in Highland Central Mexico: An Archaeological Ethnography. Anthropological Papers No. 82. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro, and Domínguez, Silvia 2009 Cambios en la estrategia de la explotación de obsidiana de Pachuca: Teotihuacan, Tula y la Triple Alianza. Ancient Mesoamerica 20:129–148.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia 2002 Domestic Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, and Uruñuela, Gabriela 2002 Shrines, Ancestors, and the Volcanic Landscape at Tetimpa, Puebla. In Domestic Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Plunket, Patricia, pp. 31–42. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, and Uruñuela, Gabriela 2003 From Episodic to Permanent Abandonment: Responses to Volcanic Hazards at Tetimpa, Puebla, Mexico. In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Inomata, Takeshi and Webb, Ronald W., pp. 13–27. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, and Uruñuela, Gabriela 2005 Recent Research in Puebla Prehistory. Journal of Archaeological Research 13:89–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, and Uruñuela, Gabriela 2006 Social and Cultural Consequences of a Late Holocene Eruption of Popocatépetl in Central Mexico. Quaternary International 151:19–28.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, and Uruñuela, Gabriela 2012 Where East Meets West: The Formative in Mexico's Central Highlands. Journal of Archaeological Research 20:1–51.Google Scholar
Plunket, Patricia, Uruñuela, Gabriela, Glascock, Michael, and Neff, Hector 2005 A Rural Perspective on Mesoamerican Integration during the Late and Terminal Formative. In New Perspectives on Formative Mesoamerican Cultures, edited by Powis, Terry, pp. 183–193. BAR International Series 1377. British Archaeological Reports/Archaeopress, Oxford.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey, and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1993 Late Formative Period Society at Loma Torremote: A Consideration of the Redistribution vs. the Great Provider Models as a Basis for the Emergence of Complexity in the Basin of Mexico. In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence, edited by Santley, Robert and Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 67–86. CRC Press, Boca Raton.Google Scholar
Puche, Serra, Carmen, Mari 1998 Xochitécatl. Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala.Google Scholar
Puche, Serra, Carmen, Mari, and Arce, J. Carlos Lazcano 2011 Vida cotidiana, Xochitécatl-Cacaxtla: días, años, milenios. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson D. 1972 A Model of Mesoamerican Obsidian Technology Based on Preclassic Workshop Debris in El Salvador. Cerámica de Cultural Maya 8:17–33.Google Scholar
Smith, Carl Anthony 2011 The Experimental Determination of the Function of Obsidian Scrapers Recovered from the Formative Period site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, Mexico: A Scanning Electron Microscope Approach. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Snow, Dean R. 1969 Ceramic Sequence and Settlement Location in Prehispanic Tlaxcala. American Antiquity 34:131–145.Google Scholar
Spranz, Bodo 1970 Die pyramiden von Totimehuacan, Puebla (Mexico). Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo, and Luján, Leonardo López 2007 Dedicatory Burial/Offering Complexes at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan: A Preliminary Report of 1998–2004 Explorations. Ancient Mesoamerica 18:127–146.Google Scholar
Tolstoy, Paul 1971 Utilitarian Artifacts of Central Mexico. In Handbook of Middle American Indians: Vol. 10, Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, Part 1, edited by Ekholm, Gordon F. and Bernal, Ignacio, pp. 270–296. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar