THE EARLY IZAPA KINGDOM: RECENT EXCAVATIONS, NEW DATING AND MIDDLE FORMATIVE CERAMIC ANALYSES

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Rosenswig ◽  
Brendan J. Culleton ◽  
Douglas J. Kennett ◽  
Rosemary Lieske ◽  
Rebecca R. Mendelsohn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
Ceramic Analysis ◽  
Differential Distribution ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Good Surface ◽  
Mound 72 ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Group B ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Ams Dates

AbstractIzapa is famous for its monumental architecture and extensive corpus of carved stelae dated to the Late Formative Guillén phase (300–100 calb.c.). The site was first established, however, as the capital of a kingdom during the second half of the Middle Formative period (750–300 calb.c.). Little is known of the first centuries of the site's occupation or how this early kingdom coalesced with Izapa as its capital. In 2012, the Izapa Regional Settlement Project (IRSP) excavated 21 test units and ran 10 radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates in order to begin correcting this lacuna. These excavations were the first at the site to screen soil matrices and recover artifact samples that can be quantitatively analyzed.We undertook excavations in areas north and south of Group B, the original center of Izapa. This work dates the northern expansion of the site's main platform (under Mound 30a) to the Terminal Formative Itstapa phase (cala.d.100–300) that resulted in a doubling of the platform's size. Further, we documented that there were three distinct construction episodes in the Terminal Formative expansion and that a central staircase and ramp were built of stone during the second episode. Buried below the Terminal Formative platform expansion was a white clay surface built during the Escalón phase (750–500 calb.c.) and used through to Guillén times. At the long, linear Mound 62 that defines the eastern edge of Izapa's site core, we documented two episodes of Guillén-phase monumental construction. Buried below this construction fill at Mound 62, a hearth feature and stone alignment are dated to the late Middle Formative based on radiocarbon assays and the results of ceramic analysis. Excavations at Mound 72 and 73 documented that Izapa's E-Group (newly recognized with lidar [light detection and ranging] data) was established in the late Middle Formative period and then significantly augmented during the Guillén phase. The architectural program at Izapa saw its apogee during the Late Formative period, but was first established during the preceding centuries of the Middle Formative. Ten new AMS dates confirm the dating of the Escalón, Frontera, and Guillén phases to 750–100 calb.c.Ceramic analysis allowed us to differentiate quantitatively between midden deposits and construction fill through the site's occupation and to recognize domestic versus public spaces during the first centuries of the Izapa kingdom's coalescence. We identify late Middle Formative period middens based on the high density of ceramics in addition to good surface preservation of sherds and a lack of temporal mixing of types. The designation of high-artifact density middens contrasts with the contents of Late and Terminal Formative construction fill with lower ceramic sherd densities and mixing of temporally diagnostic types. Off-mound contexts (where construction fill was mined) had even lower ceramic densities than construction fill and the sherds were very eroded. Analysis of ceramic remains from late Middle Formative period midden deposits also allowed us to infer differences in public and domestic areas of the site during the first centuries of its occupation. Formal and metric variables from these ceramic assemblages identify dish-to-jar ratios that differentiate domestic contexts (with an assortment of vessel forms) from more publically oriented areas of the site (with more serving dishes). The differential distribution of rim diameters of fancy and plain dishes allows us to identify areas of Izapa where domestic activities predominate and indicate that more publically oriented feasting practices occurred at the site center near the main pyramid (Mound 30a) during the late Middle Formative period.

RE-CREATING THE FORMATIVE MAYA VILLAGE OF K'AXOB

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. McAnany ◽  
Sandra L. López Varela
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Ceramic Analysis ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vessel Volume ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Small Platform

Occupation of the lowlands by groups of Mayan-language speakers during the Archaic and Formative periods is poorly understood, partly because of a lack of sufficient data. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that early deposits often are discovered at the base of deep test excavations and, as such, yield a “window” to the past that is limited in terms of understanding settlement colonization, growth, and differentiation. The southern portion of the site of K'axob, which is located in northern Belize, contains substantial Middle and Late Formative period construction that is relatively accessible under Classic-period plaza surfaces. The results of seven large-scale excavations conducted in both large and small platform complexes are reported here. A suite of radiocarbon assays and ceramic analysis indicate initial construction at K'axob shortly after 800 b.c. Ceramic complexes presented here are typified by a diversity of Middle Formative pottery types (devoid of jar forms), followed by Late Formative pottery featuring a significant increase in vessel volume and local innovations in surface finish. At K'axob, Middle Formative domiciles were large and well equipped, and they featured a separate ancillary kitchen structure to the west. Around 200 b.c., settlement expanded from a nuclear Middle Formative core, and differentiation in residential construction became apparent. A significant aspect of Formative domestic architecture is the inclusion of human remains, which reveal longitudinal trends in the elaboration of mortuary ritual indicative of ancestor-linked social and economic differentiation.

Shifting Strategies of Political Authority in the Middle through Terminal Formative Polity of Chiapa De Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Political Hierarchy ◽  
Status Differentiation ◽  
Forced Resettlement ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
New Space ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Status Differences

This study investigates changes in strategies ofrulership at the early Zoque polity ofChiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico, from its inception in the Middle Formative period through its peak of political power during the Terminal Formative period. Incorporating data from my survey ofChiapa de Corzo and its hinterland with excavation data from the center, I contrast changes in the organization of ceremonial activity and in the establishment of status differences at the site with strategies employed in the governance of the polity at large. The initial rulers ofChiapa de Corzo adopted civic-ceremonial conventions shared with the Olmec site of La Venta, including the E-Group architectural pattern repeated at a number of sites in Chiapas. In the Late Formative, rulers integrated the E-Group into an architectural template adopted from contemporary capitals in the Maya Lowlands. This new space was less accessible than the earlier Middle Formative ceremonial zone. The adoption of these new traditions was accompanied by increased status differentiation between rulers and subjects. At the same time, there was a reduction in the elaboration of the regional political hierarchy and a decrease in the practice of forced resettlement. The results of this study indicate that the novel ceremonial practices and changes in status differentiation at the capital were accompanied unevenly by interference of rulers in the daily life of the hinterland.

UNDERSTANDING THE WRAPPED BUNDLE BURIALS OF WEST MEXICO: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF MIDDLE FORMATIVE MORTUARY PRACTICES

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill A. Rhodes ◽  
Joseph B. Mountjoy ◽  
Fabio G. Cupul-Magaña
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
High Status ◽  
West Mexico ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Funerary Customs ◽  
Secondary Burial ◽  
Unusual Type

AbstractThis article reports on the discovery of an unusual type of secondary burial found at two Middle Formative sites in the Mascota valley of Jalisco, West Mexico. We examine these burials within a Middle and Late Formative period context as well as a broader temporal context of funerary customs and mortuary programs involving secondary-type burials. Tightly wrapped, elaborately processed bundled burials were recovered at the cemeteries of El Embocadero II and Los Tanques. We report on the human remains from both sites and examine burial context and biological identity to seek explanations. The individuals selected for this burial treatment are not associated with any markers of high status. These burials may represent a different ethnic, familial, community or ancestral identity, and we consider the broader secondary burial phenomenon as the possible expression of a ritual of seasonal interment associated with the use of a mortuary hut to curate and process the bodies.

EXPLORING FORMATIVE PERIOD OBSIDIAN BLADE TRADE: THREE DISTRIBUTION MODELS

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason P. De León ◽  
Kenneth G. Hirth ◽  
David M. Carballo
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Basin Of Mexico ◽  
Consumption Data ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Blade Production

AbstractObsidian prismatic blades were widely traded across Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Formative periods. However, it was not until the Late Formative period (400b.c.—a.d. 100) that prismatic blade cores began to be exchanged extensively. Although it is generally accepted that the trading of blades preceded the trading of cores by almost 1,000 years, little is know about the structure of blade trading during the Early and Middle Formative periods. We describe three distributional models for the trade of obsidian prismatic blades: whole-blade trade, processed-blade trade, and local-blade production. These models were evaluated using obsidian consumption data from Oaxaca, the Basin of Mexico, and Tlaxcala. The results indicate that Formative period blade trade involved different forms over time and space.

THE EARLY FORMATIVE PERIOD IN THE SOUTHERN ISTHMUS: EXCAVATIONS AT BARRIO TEPALCATE, IXTEPEC, OAXACA

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Carla Reyes González ◽  
Marcus Winter
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
San Jose ◽  
San Lorenzo ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Isthmus Of Tehuantepec ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Design Motifs ◽  
The Village ◽  
Early Formative

AbstractBarrio Tepalcate, on the Los Perros River just outside Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca, 18 km upriver from Laguna Zope, is one of the few Early and Middle Formative period sites known in the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec region. Our salvage excavation in 2005 showed that the village covered no more than four hectares. It was probably one of several villages along the river in a two-tiered settlement hierarchy centered on Laguna Zope. The presence of Early Formative period ceramics suggests that the inhabitants of Barrio Tepalcate participated in the Early Olmec style horizon, although the design motifs on their pottery are simpler than those from San Lorenzo 150 km to the north. We found little evidence of imported ceramics from San Lorenzo, which may be due to the small size of the sample and the site, or to differences in how San Lorenzo interacted with highland sites, such as Etlatongo and San José Mogote, and Isthmian sites, such as Barrio Tepalcate. The Early Formative inhabitants of the southern Isthmus were members of the Mixe-Zoque language family, and specifically Mixe speakers by the Late Formative.

Early Maya ceremonial at Cuello, Belize

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 176-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Joint Venture ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
National Geographic Society ◽  
National Geographic ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative

The formative period of Maya civilization has been the subject of recent attention, both in discussion (e.g. Adams, 1977) and in excavation; several projects have been established specifically to investigate the processes that led to the Classic Maya florescence in the first millennium AD. Among these has been the Cuello Project, a joint venture of the British Museum, the National Geographic Society and Rutgers University; this article summarizes the results of the third and final season of the project’s excavations at Cuello, Belize (Fig. I), which took place from January to March, 1980. The terminology for excavated features, structures etc. is detailed in Hammond (1978).The site was discovered during extensive surveys in 1973–4 (Hammond, 1974, Fig. I), and its potential for the study of the Preclassic or Formative period which preceded the rise of Classic Maya civilization led to a test excavation in 1975. The sequence of building levels and pottery preserved by the growth of Platform 34, a large flat construction with a small superincumbent pyramid (Str. 35) (PL. XXVIa), lying to the southwest of the main part of the site (Donaghey, et al., 1976, Fig. 2), showed that the uppermost floors on the platform had been laid in the Late Formative (conventionally 300 BC–AD 250 ), over structures of the Middle Formative (1000–300 BC). Below these were earlier deposits associated with pottery of pre-Middle Formative date which was assigned to the Early Formative (2000–1000 BC).

SELECTIVE MEMORY: MONUMENTAL POLITICS OF THE YAXUNÁ E GROUP IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ryan H. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Vital Role ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Significant Patterns ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Critical Case Study

Abstract In seeking continuities and disjuncture from the precedents of past authorities, the Mesoamerican emergent ruling class during the Formative period were active agents in directing changes to monumental space, suggesting that memory played a vital role in developing an early shared character of Maya lifeways (1000 b.c. to a.d. 250). The trend is most visible in the civic ceremonial complexes known as E Groups, which tend to show significant patterns of continuity (remembering) and disjuncture (forgetting). This article uses the northern lowland site of Yaxuná in Yucatan, Mexico, to demonstrate the use of early selective strategies to direct collective memory. While there are E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands, few Formative period examples are known, making Yaxuná a critical case study for comparative assessment with the southern lowlands. One implication of the Yaxuná data is that the broader pattern of Middle Formative E Groups resulted from sustained social, religious, political, and economic interaction between diverse peer groups across eastern Mesoamerica. With the emergence of institutionalized rulership in the Maya lowlands during the Late Formative, local authorities played a significant role in directing transformations of E Groups, selectively influencing their meanings and increasingly independent trajectories through continuity and disjuncture.

Flakes to Blades? Middle Formative Development of Obsidian Artifacts in the Upper Belize River Valley

1994 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Awe ◽  
Paul F. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Developmental Sequence ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Documented Case ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Artifact Type

The recovery of obsidian artifacts in radiometrically dated cultural stratigraphic levels at the Maya site of Cahal Pech (Belize) suggests that there was a flake-to-bladelet sequence of development of obsidian technology in the Belize Valley region of the Maya lowlands. Obsidian artifacts within levels dating to the first half of the early Middle Formative period (1000-850 B.C.) at Cahal Pech consist exclusively of flakes. Prismatic blades first occur in late Middle Formative (650-450 B.C.) levels, and remain the predominant artifact type throughout the subsequent Late Formative and Classic periods. This Middle Formative transition in obsidian artifacts has been recorded elsewhere in Mesoamerica, but the Cahal Pech data represent the first explicitly documented case of the developmental sequence in the central Maya lowlands.

Landscape Setting as Medium of Communication at Chavín de Huántar, Peru

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 513-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Contreras
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Peruvian Andes ◽  
Chavin De Huantar ◽  
Dynamic Landscape ◽  
Multiple Audiences ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Chavín De Huántar

The Central Andean ceremonial centre of Chavín de Huántar is situated in a dramatic, mountainous and dynamic environment high on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes, yet the site's landscape setting has remained in the shadow of its monumental architecture, complex lithic art and highly elaborated material culture. Nevertheless, that dynamic landscape setting was an integral part of the site's significance as a ceremonial centre and may be read as evidence of the capacity, worldview and message of the site's builders. First, Chavín's setting is evidence of capacity, demonstrating the considerable degree of labour mobilization and organization, as well as expertise, implied by the site's modified landscape. Second, Chavín's landscape, considered in its Central Andean context, provides evidence of worldview, demonstrating that landscape setting was a medium of interest for Chavín's designers. Third, the modified landscape provides evidence of message, allowing exploration of what Chavín's designers were trying to communicate, and to whom. Focusing on these three aspects in reading Chavín's landscape suggests that landscape setting was a vital aspect of Central Andean Middle and Late Formative Period (1000–500 bce) ceremonial centres and argues that emergent elites actively exploited landscape setting as a communicative medium and forum for dissemination of ideology, deliberately communicating to multiple audiences.

scholarly journals The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Intercultural Identity ◽  
Late Formative

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

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