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At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary M. Feinman  and
Linda M. Nicholas
Gary M. Feinman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706
Linda M. Nicholas
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706
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Abstract

A recent systematic archaeological survey in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico, enables us to examine long-term settlement-pattern changes in this small region and its shifting Prehispanic relation with the larger, adjacent Valley of Oaxaca. Throughout the sequence, Ejutla was settled less densely than Oaxaca, though the degree of difference varied through time. Ejutla was not a simple microcosm of Oaxaca; rather the former region shifted from a sparsely inhabited frontier to a more-dependent periphery that maintained different degrees of autonomy over time. Through a multiscalar examination of this contiguous area larger than a single valley, new perspectives are gained concerning political and economic relations and processes at the macroregional scale for the southern highlands of ancient Mesoamerica.

Un reciente reconocimiento arqueológico sistemático del 522 km2 en el Valle de Ejutla, Oaxaca, México, nos permite examinar los cambios de patrones de asentamiento a largo plazo en esta pequeña región y, también, su cambiante relación prehispánica con el adyacente Valle de Oaxaca, un valle más grande donde ya se llevó a cabo un reconocimiento regional comparable. Por toda la secuencia prehispánica, Ejutla fue habitado menos densamente que Oaxaca, aunque la diferencia en densidad entre las dos regiones varió a través del tiempo.

Se usan las diferencias en la distribución de artefactos para ilustrar la variabilidad entre las dos regiones. Basado en los resultados de nuestro análisis, Ejutla no era simplemente un microcosmos de Oaxaca; más bien Ejutla cambió de una frontera habitada con poca densidad (antes del período Formativo Terminal) a una periferia más dependiente que mantuvo grados diferentes de autonomía a través del tiempo. Durante las fases Monte Albán II y IIIA, la región de Ejutla fue incorporada en la constitución política de Monte Albán. Después del caída de Monte Albán, Ejutla fue más autónomo políticamente, pero puede haber quedado como un poco levemente dependiente económicamente del valle más grande al norte.

A través de un examen a varias escalas de este área contigua que es más grande que un solo valle, se ganaron perspectivas nuevas tocantes a las relaciones y los procesos políticos y económicos a escala macroregional para los altos sureños de la Mesoamérica antigua. En el curso de la discusión damos énfasis a la contribución indespensable de la investigación regional del patrón de asentamientos al conocimiento del mundo mesoamericano prehispánico.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 216 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1990

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