Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T10:04:01.763Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evaluation of Systematic Surface Evidence for Pottery Production in Veracruz, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara L. Stark  and
Christopher P. Garraty
Barbara L. Stark
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287–2402
Christopher P. Garraty
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287–2402
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Survey-based analyses have used varied criteria to detect locations of pottery production in the Gulf lowlands of south-central and southern Veracruz, Mexico. A common practice uses double criteria: high frequencies or high densities of particular kinds of pottery in conjunction with highly reliable indicators, such as kiln fragments. Reliable indicators are relatively scarce, however, and subject to sampling error. Two previous analytical approaches each present problems with respect to threshold values for applying the density and frequency criteria, and a more standard set of procedures is suggested. An alternative criterion using spatial clustering helps reduce susceptibility to sampling error from infrequent finds such as deformed wasters or kiln fragments. In a case study, two newly detected locations of possible pottery production result from application of the alternative double criteria. With incorporation of these new data, changes in Gulf lowland pottery production over time are compatible with a growing role for specialization and marketing, especially from the Late Classic to the Late Postclassic periods. The examination and application of criteria for identifying possible locations of pottery production are important for harnessing the potential of systematic survey and surface collection for studies of economic change.

Los análisis basados en la prospección de superficie han empleado criterios distintos para detectar los lugares de producción alfarera en las tierras bajas del Golfo de las areas sur-central y sur de Veracruz, Mexico. La aplicación de criterios dobles ha sido común, incluyendo por lo menos la presencia de un ejemplo de una categoria confiable de evidencia. Las frecuencias o densidades marcadamente elevadas de algunos tipos de loza se han utilizado junto con los indicadores confiables, pero estos últimos son susceptibles a errores de muestreo. Dos variantes de los métodos previamente aplicados presentan problemas. Se recomienda aquiemplear un método mas estandarizado para realizar comparaciones. El criterio alternativo de concentración espacial que aqui se propone tiene la ventaja de reducir la susceptibilidad de errores de muestreo. En el caso de estudio al que se aplicó, en la cuenca baja oeste del Papaloapan, se detectaron dos nuevos lugares de posible producción alfarera. Con la incorporación de estos nuevos lugares de producción, los cambios a través del tiempo en la producción alfarera del Golfo concuerdan con un escenario en que la especialización económica y los mercados juegan unpapel incremente, especialmente desde el Clásico Tardío hasta el Postclásico Tardio. El examinary aplicar del criterio doble para identificar los posibles lugares de la producción alfarera son importantes para realizar el potencial de las prospecciones sistemáticas y la recolección de superficie para estudiar los cambios económicos.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 123 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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 Cited

Rafael, Abascal M. 1976 Los primeros pueblos alfareros prehispánicos. In El Proyecto Arqueológico Puebla-Tlaxcala, coordinated by Angel García Cook, pp. 49–52. Suplemento, Comunicaciones, Proyecto Puebla-Tlaxcala, III. Fundación Alemana para la Investigatión Científica, Puebla, Mexico. Google Scholar
Andrews, Anthony P. 1983 Maya Salt Production and Trade. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Arnold, Philip J. III 1989 Prehispanic Household Ceramic Production Variability at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. In Households and Communities, edited by Scott MacEachern, David J. W. Archer, and Richard D. Garvin, pp. 388–397. University of Calgary Archaeological Association, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Google Scholar
Arnold, Philip J. III, Pool, Christopher A., Kneebone, Ronald R., and Santley, Robert S. 1993 Intensive Ceramic Production and Classic-Period Political Economy in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:175–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Philip J. III, and Santley, Robert S. 1993 Household Ceramics Production at Middle Classic Period Matacapan. In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence, edited by Robert S. Santley and Kenneth G. Hirth, pp. 227–248. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. Google Scholar
Balkansky, Andrew K., Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1997 Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 24:139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barba, Luis A., and Funz, José Luis Córdova 1999 Estudios energéticos de la productión de cal en tiempos teotihuacanos y sus implicaciones. Latin American Antiquity 10:168–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, Richard E. 1996 The Basin of Mexico Market System and the Growth of Empire. In Aztec Imperial Strategies, co-authored by Frances F. Berdan, Richard E. Blanton, Elizabeth Hill Boone, Mary G. Hodge, Michael E. Smith, and Emily Umberger, pp. 47–84. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., and Finsten, Laura 1993 Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions, second edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1990 Fifteen Fallacies in Lithic Workshop Interpretation: An Experimental and Ethnoarchaeological Perspective. In Etnoarqueología, Primer Coloquio Bosch-Gimpera, edited by Yoko Sugiura Y. and Mari Carmen Serra Puche, pp. 497–512. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F. Google Scholar
Curet, Antonio 1993 Regional Studies and Ceramic Production Areas: An Example from La Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 20:427–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curet, L. Antonio, Stark, Barbara L., and Sergio Vásquez, Z. 1994 Postclassic Changes in Veracruz, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:13–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Richard A., González, Alfredo Vargas, and Zárate, Sergio Vásquez 1997 Proyecto arqueológico La Mojarra. In Memoria del Coloquio Arqueología del Centro y Sur de Veracruz, coordinated by Sara Ladrón de Guevara González and Sergio Vásquez Zárate, pp. 197–209. Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa. Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. 1980 Relationship between Administrative Organization and Ceramic Production in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, New York.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. 1999 Rethinking our Assumptions: Economic Specialization at the Household Scale in Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico. In Pottery and People: A Dynamic Interaction, edited by James M. Skibo and Gary M. Feinman, pp. 81–98. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 2000 High-intensity Household-scale Production in Ancient Mesoamerica: A Perspective from Ejutla, Oaxaca. In Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints, edited by Gary M. Feinman and Linda M. Nicholas, pp. 119–142. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fry, Robert E. 1980 Models of Exchange for Major Shape Classes of Lowland Maya Pottery. In Models and Methods in Regional Exchange, edited by Robert E. Fry, pp. 3–18. SAA Papers No. 1. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Garraty, Christopher P. 2002 Evaluating Market Exchange in South-Central Veracruz, Mexico: An Application of the Distributional Approach. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver.Google Scholar
Garraty, Christopher P., and Stark, Barbara L. 2002 Imperial and Social Relations in Postclassic South-central Veracruz, Mexico Latin American Antiquity 13:3–33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, Lynette 2000 Postclassic Obsidian Workshop Debris from El Sauce, Veracruz, Mexico. Mexicon XXII:139–147.Google Scholar
Heller, Lynette, and Stark, Barbara L. 1998 Classic and Postclassic Obsidian Tool Production and Consumption: A Regional Perspective from the Mixtequilla, Veracruz. Mexicon 20: 119–128. Figures reprinted in 1999, Mexicon 21.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1998 The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology 39:451–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoag, Elizabeth 2003 Interpreting Burned Earthen Artifacts: A Spatial and Quantitative Analysis of Daub and Kiln Debris from Tres Zapotes. In Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, edited by Christopher A. Pool, pp. 47–55. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles. Google Scholar
Hodge, Mary G., and Mine, Leah D. 1990 The Spatial Patterning of Aztec Ceramics: Implications for Prehispanic Exchange Systems in the Valley of Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 17:415–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura, Blanton, Richard E., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1989 Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part II, Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, vol. 1. Memoirs No. 23, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kruger, Robert P. 1999 San Carlos Rural Olmec Household Project. Report to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Crystal River, Florida. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/95101/index.html, accessed March 2, 2004.Google Scholar
Nichols, Deborah L. 1996 An Overview of Regional Settlement Pattern Survey in Mesoamerica: 1960–1995. In Arqueología Mesoamericana: Homenaje a William T. Sanders, vol. 1, coordinated by Alba Guadalupe Mastache, Jeffrey R. Parsons, Robert S. Santley, and Mari Carmen Serra Puche, pp. 59–95. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and Arqueología Mexicana. México, D.F. Google Scholar
Ohnersorgen, Michael Anthony 2001 Social and Economic Organization of Cotaxtla in the Postclassic Gulf Lowlands. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1990 Ceramic Production, Resource Procurement, and Exchange at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1992 Integrating Ceramic Production and Distribution. In Ceramic Production and Distribution: An Integrated Approach, edited by George J. Bey, III, and Christopher A. Pool, pp. 275–313. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1995 La cerámica del clásico tardio y el postclásico en la Sierra de los Tuxtlas. Arqueología 13–14:37–48.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 1997 The Spatial Structure of Formative Houselots at Bezuapan. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Barbara L. Stark and Philip J. Arnold III, pp. 40–67. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 2003 Ceramic Production at Terminal Formative and Classic Period Tres Zapotes. In Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz. Mexico, edited by Christopher A. Pool, pp. 56–68. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles. Google Scholar
Rands, Robert L., and Bishop, Ronald L. 1980 Resource Procurement Zones and Patterns of Ceramic Exchange in the Palenque Region, Mexico. In Models and Methods in Regional Exchange, edited by Robert E. Fry, pp. 19–46. SAA Papers No. 1. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Reents-Budet, Dorie 1994 Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1994 The Economy of Ancient Matacapan. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:243–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Arnold, Philip J. III 1996 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 23:225–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Kneebone, Ronald R. 1993 Craft Specialization, Refuse Disposal, and the Creation of Spatial Archaeological Records in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence, edited by Robert S. Santley and Kenneth G. Hirth, pp. 39–63. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Arnold, Philip J. III, and Pool, Christopher A. 1989 The Ceramics Production System at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:107–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Ceballos, Ponciano Ortíz, Killion, Thomas W., Arnold, Philip J., and Kerley, Janet M. 1984 Final Field Report of the Matacapan Archaeological Project: The 1982 Season. Research Paper Series No. 15, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Siegel, Sidney 1956 Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.Google Scholar
Skoglund, Thanet 2001 Imports and Imitations: Compositional and Stylistic Analysis of Aztec-style Ceramics from Veracruz, Mexico. Master's Paper, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1999 On Hirth's “Distributional Approach.” Current Anthropology 40:528–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speaker, John Stuart 2001 Settlement and Agricultural Land Use in Ancient Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 1985 Archaeological Identification of Pottery Production Locations: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Data in Mesoamerica. In Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics, edited by Ben A. Nelson, pp. 158–194. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 1989 Patarata Pottery: Classic Period Ceramics of the South-central Gulf Coast, Veracruz, Mexico. Anthropological Papers 51. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 1992 Ceramic Production in La Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico. In Ceramic Production and Distribution: An Integrated Approach, edited by George J. Bey, III, and Christopher Pool, pp. 175–204. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 2003 Pottery Production and Distribution in the Gulf Lowlands of Mesoamerica. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Heller, Lynette, and Ohnersorgen, Michael A. 1998 People with Cloth: Mesoamerican Economic Change from the Perspective of Cotton in South-central Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 9:1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szatkowski-Reeves, Tammy L. 2002 Specialized Production and Economic Change in the Late Formative Community of Papayal, Veracruz, Mexico. Paper presented at the 67th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver.Google Scholar
Urban, Patricia A., Christian Wells, E., and Ausec, Marne T. 1997 The Fires Without and the Fires Within: Evidence for Ceramic Production Facilities at the Late Classic site of La Sierra, Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras, and its Environs. In The Prehistory and History of Ceramic Kilns, edited by Prudence M. Rice, pp. 173–194. American Ceramic Society, Westerville, Ohio. Google Scholar
Vargas González, Alfredo 1998 La industria alfarera en el sitio arqueológico de La Mojarra, cuenca baja del Papaloapan. Tesis de Licenciado en Antropología, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México.Google Scholar