Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T05:41:03.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Population Estimate for the Epiclassic Middle Malpaso Valley (La Quemada), Zacatecas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles D. Trombold
Charles D. Trombold*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130 (trombold@artsci.wustl.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Long-term excavations at two large La Quemada hinterland habitation sites provide data for developing population estimates based on ethnographic studies. Calculations based in part on ratio constants of roofed floor area to excavated space are applied to 183 habitation sites in the valley measured in 1974. These data reveal not only the range of population in the immediate valley, but also in major population aggregates around La Quemada during the period of major occupation (ca. A.D. 700). The mean population within the La Quemada core area is estimated as 6,867 (between 4,578 and 9,155) individuals, with an average population density of 38 persons per km2. Population density within three of the largest nearby settlement aggregates ranges around a mean of 209, 136, and 117 individuals respectively per square kilometer.

Las prolongadas excavaciones en dos grandes sitios de habitación de la zona de influencia de La Quemada proveen información y datos útiles para estimar el número de pobladores del valle Malpaso tomando en cuenta estudios etnográ. Loscálculos basados en parte en las relaciones proporcionales entre áreas de piso techado por espacio excavado se aplican a 183 sitios de habitación en el valle medidos a partir de 1974. Estos datos revelan no sólo el rango poblacional en las inmediaciones del valle, sino también en concentraciones importantes de poblaciones durante el momento de mayor ocupación de La Quemada, ca. 700 AD. El promedio de la población en el área central de La Quemada se estima en 6.867 (entre 4.578 y 9.155) individuos, con un promedio en la densidad poblacional de 38 individuos/km2. La densidad de la población entre los tres asentamientos cercanos más grandes se estima en un promedio de 209, 136 y 117 individuos respectivamente por kilómetro cuadrado.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 235 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 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

Armillas, Pedro 1963 Investigaciones Arqueológicas en el Estado de Zacatecas. Boletin del INAH 14:16–17. México, D.F.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1964 Condiciones Ambientales y Movimientos de Pueblos en la Frontera Septentrional de México. In Homenaje a Fernando Márquez-Miranda, pp. 62–82. Publicaciones del Seminario de Estudios Americanistas y Seminario de Antropología, Universidades de Madrid y Sevilla.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1969 The Arid Frontier of Mexican Civilization. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences Series 2, 31(6):694–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batres, Leopoldo 1903 Visita a los monumentos de “La Quemada.” Imprenta de la Vda. De Francisco Díaz de Léon. México, D.F.Google Scholar
Becquelin, Pierre, and Michelet, Dominique 1994 Demografía en la Zona Puuc: Recurso del Método. Latin American Antiquity 5:289–311.Google Scholar
Burkart, Joseph 1836 Aufenthalt und reisen in México, vol 2, pp. 97–106. E. Schweinerbart’s Verlagshandlungen, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Cabrero García, Ma. Teresa 1989 Civilizución en el Norte de México: Arqueología de la Cañada del Río Bolaños (Zacatecas y Jalisco). Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Serie Antropológica: 103. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Carneiro, Robert L. 1981 The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. In The Transition to Statehood in the New World, edited by Grant D. Jones and Robert R. Krautz, pp. 37–79. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Casselberry, Samuel 1974 Further Refinement of Formulae for Determining Population from Floor Area. World Archaeology 6:118–122.Google Scholar
Clavijero, Fr. Francisco J. 1974 [1780] Historia antigua de Mexico. 4th edition. Editorial Porrúa, S. A., México, D. F.Google Scholar
Crane, H. R. 1956 University of Michigan Radiocarbon Dates I. Science 24:664–672.Google Scholar
Crane, H. R., and Griffin, J.B. 1958 University of Michigan Radiocarbon Dates II. Science 127:1104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crane, H. R., and Griffin, J.B. 1966 University of Michigan Radiocarbon Dates XI. Radiocarbon 8:280–282.Google Scholar
de Berghes, Charles 1833 Piano geométrico y topográfico de las tierras de la Hda. de La Quemada y de las divisiones en Potreros con la clasificación segñn cultivo del campo y el terreno (Acompañado de la posicion y topografia de Villanueva y de los edificios cimientos y caminos de las poblaciones antiguas). Map, Archivos del Museo de Zacatecas, Zacatecas. (previously in the Federico Sescosse Collection).Google Scholar
de Berghes, Charles 1996 [1855] Descriptión de las ruinas de asentamientos Aztecas durante su migratión al Valle de México, a través del actual Estado Libre de Zacatecas. Second edition, translated by Achim Lelgemann. Colección Joyas Bibliográficas Zacatecanas II, Gobierno del Estado de Zacatecas, Zacatecas.Google Scholar
Diehl, Richard 1983 Tula: The Toltec Capital of Ancient Mexico. Thames and Hudson, London Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1987 Chiefdoms in Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspective. In Annual Review of Anthropology 16, edited by Bernard J. Siegel, Alan R. Beals and Stephen A. Tyler, pp. 279–308. Annual Reviews, Inc. Palo Alto.Google Scholar
Guillemin Tarayre, Edmond 1869 L’Exploration Minéralogique des Régions Mexicaines, Deuxiéme Partie. In: Notes Archéologiques et Ethnographiques; Vestiges Laissées par les Migrations Américaines dans le Nord du Mexique. Vol. III, pp. 341–470. Ministére del’Instruction Publique. Archives de la Comission Scientifique du Mexique. Imprimerie Impériale, Paris.Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1991 Roads, Routes and the Ties That Bind. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 17–27, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1992 War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Holien, Thomas 1974 Pseudo-cloisonné in the Southwest and Mesoamerica. In Collected Papers in Honor of Florence Hawley Ellis, edited by Ted R. Frisbee, pp. 157–177, Hooper, Norman, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Jiménez Betts, Peter 1992 Una red de interactión del Noroeste de Mesoamérica: Una interpretatión. In Origen y desarrollo en el occidente de México, edited by Brigitte Boehm de Lameiras and Phil C. Weigand, pp. 177–204. El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, México.Google Scholar
Jiménez Betts, Peter, and Andrew Darling, J. 2000 Archaeology of Southern Zacatecas. In Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest México, edited by Michael. S. Foster and Shirley Gorenstein, pp. 155–180. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Charles, Kelley J. 1971 Archaeology of the Northern Frontier. In Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, edited by Gordon E. Ekholm and Ignacro Bernal, pp. 768–801. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 11, Part 2, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Charles, Kelley J. 1985 The Chronology of the Chalchihuites Culture. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by Michael S. Foster and Phil C. Weigand, pp. 269–288. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. Charles, and Kelley, Ellen Abbott 1971 An Introduction to the Ceramics of the Chalchihuites Culture of Zacatecas and Durango, Part I: The Decorated Wares. Mesoamerican Studies 5, University Museum, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Google Scholar
Kolb, Charles 1985 Demographic Estimates in Archaeology: Contributions from Ethnoarchaeology on Mesoamerican Peasants. Current Anthropology 26:581–599.Google Scholar
Lelgemann, Achim 2000 Proyecto Arqueológico Ciudadela de la Quemada. Archivos Técnicos del INAH, México D.F.Google Scholar
Lyon, Capt. G. F. 1828 Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of México, Vol. 1 J. Murray, London.Google Scholar
Naroll, Raoul 1962 Floor Area and Settlement Population. American Antiquity 27:587–589.Google Scholar
Neill, Christopher 1989 Apéndice III: Restos faunisticos. In Informe técnico final sobre las excavaciones en el sitio arqueológico MV-138 (Las Adjuntas): Una aldea de La Quemada, Zacatecas, México (2003 revision), edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 95–97, Archivos Técnicos del INAH. México, D. F.Google Scholar
Neill, Christopher 2004a Northern Malpaso Valley Survey Project. Unpublished manuscript on file, Escuela de Antropología, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, México.Google Scholar
Neill, Christopher 2004b An Estimation of Population Size at the Site of La Quemada, Zacatecas, México Based on Model Life Table Statistics In La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (Appendix 3), pp. 126–129. Unpublished manuscript on file, Escuela de Antropología, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben A. 1990 Observaciones acerca de la presencia Tolteca en La Quemada. In Mesoamérica y norte de México Sigh IX - XII, vol. 2, edited by Federica Sodi Miranda, pp. 521–540. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben A. 1993 Outposts of Mesoamerican Empire and Architectural Patterning at La Quemada, Zacatecas. In Culture and Contact: Charles C. DiPeso’s Gran Chichimeca, edited by Anne I. Woosley and John C. Ravesloot, pp. 173–189. University of New México Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben A. 1995 Complexity, Hierarchy, and Scale: A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New México, and La Quemada, Zacatecas. American Antiquity 60:597–618.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben A. 1997 Chronology and Stratigraphy at La Quemada, Zacatecas, México. Journal of Field Archaeology 24:85–109.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben A., Andrew Darling, J., and Kice, David 1992 Mortuary Practice and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, México. Latin American Antiquity 3:298–315.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben, Kantor, L., Robertson, Ian, Schiavitti, Vince, Strazicich, Nicola, and Turkon, Paula 1995 Informe Parcial del Proyecto Valle de Malpaso Temporada 1993. Unpublished manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Nelson, Ben, Millhauser, John, and To, Denise 1997 Burial Excavations in Plaza 1 of Los Pilarillos, Zacatecas, México. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/96075/index.html, accessed April 20, 2004.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1930 Ruinas arqueológicas del norte de México: Casas Grandes (Chihuahua); La Quemada, Chalchihuites (Zacatecas). Secretaría de Educatión Publica, México, D. F.Google Scholar
Palerm, Angel, and Wolf, Eric 1957 Ecological Potential and Cultural Development in Mesoamerica. In Studies in Human Ecology, pp. 1–37. Anthropological Society of Washington and Pan American Union Social Science Monograph 3, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1973 Diachronic Anthropology. In Research and Theory in Current Archaeology, edited by Charles Redman, pp. 181–198. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1975 Demographic Studies in Southwestern Prehistory. In Population Studies in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology: A Symposium, edited by A. C. Swedlund, pp. 94–103. Memoir 30, Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1972 The Emergence of Civilization. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Rivera, Pedro 1843 [1831] Ruinas de La Quemada en el Departamento de Zacatecas. El museo Mexicano, Vol. I, pp. 184–188, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Schacht, Robert M. 1984 The Contemporaneity Problem. American Antiquity 49: 678–695.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J. 1991 The Association between Roads and Polities: Evidence for Wari Roads in Peru. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 243–252. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Schreiber, Katharina J., and Kintigh, Keith W. 1996 A Test of the Relationship between Site Size and Population. American Antiquity 61: 573–579.Google Scholar
Shea, Daniel 1985 Comments on Kolb. Current Anthropology 26(5):594.Google Scholar
Strazicich, Nicola M. 1995 Prehispanic Pottery Production in the Chalchihuites and La Quemada Regions of Zacatecas, México. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Toll, Molly S. 1989 Apéndice Ila: Analisis de flotatión. In Informe técnico final sobre las excavaciones en el sitio arqueológico MV-138 (Las Adjuntas): Una aldea de La Quemada, Zacatecas, México (2003 revision), edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 89–92. Archivos Técnicos del INAH, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Toll, Molly S. 1990 Flotation from Site MV-138(86), La Quemada Region, Zacatecas, México. Castetter Laboratory for Ethnobotanical Studies, University of New México, Technical Series 270. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1976a Resumen e interpretación de reconocimiento arqueológico en la zona de las ruinas de La Quemada (Chicomostoc), Zacatecas, México desde Marzo a Noviembre de 1974. Informe técnico final. Archivos Técnicos del INAH, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1976b Spatial Distribution, Functional Hierarchies and Patterns of Interaction in Prehistoric Communities around La Quemada, Zacatecas, México. In Archaeological Frontiers: Papers on New World High Cultures in Honor of J. Charles Kelley, edited by Robert B. Pickering, pp. 149–182. Research Records No. 4. University Museum Studies, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1985a Conceptual Innovations in Settlement Pattern Methodology on the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier. In Contributions to the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Greater Mesoamerica, edited by William J. Folan, pp. 205–239, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale and Edwardsville.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1985b A Summary of Archaeology in the La Quemada Region. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by Michael S. Foster and Phil C. Weigand, pp. 237–267, Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1988 Algunos patrones emergentes en la arqueología de la Frontera Norte Mesoamericana. In Primera reunión sobre las sociedades prehispánicas en el Centro de México, edited by Rosa Brambila and Ana María Crespo, pp. 377–400. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Centro Regional de Querétaro, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1989 Informe técnico final sobre las excavaciones en el sitio arqueológico MV- 138 (Las Adjuntas): Una aldea de La Quemada, Zacatecas, México. (2003 revision). Archivos Técnicos del INAH. México, D.F.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1990 A Reconsideration of Chronology for the La Quemada Portion of the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier. American Antiquity 55:308–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1991a An Introduction to the Study of Ancient New World Road Networks. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 1–9. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 1991b Causeways in the Context of Strategic Planning in the La Quemada Region, Zacatecas, México, In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 145–168, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D. 2003 Excavaciones en sitio MV-206 e investigaciones paleobotánicas en la region de La Quemada, Municipio de Villanueva, Zacatecas, México. Informe técnico preliminar, primer temporada, Archivos Técnicos del INAH, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D., and de la Cruz Carrillo Jutiacamé, Benito 2003 Huichol Habitational Floor Area and Household Census at Queauruitea, Jalisco: Implications for Archaeological Population Estimates. Paper presented at the 26th Annual Conference on Mesoamerican Archaeology and Ethnohistory. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D., and Israde-Alcantara, Isabel 2005 Paleoenvironment and Plant Cultivation on Terraces at La Quemada, Zacatecas, México: The Pollen, Phytolith and Diatom Evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:341–353.Google Scholar
Trombold, Charles D., Luhr, James F., Hasenaka, Toshiaki, and Glascock, Michael D. 1993 Chemical Characteristics of Obsidian from Archaeological Sites in West México and the Tequila Source Area: Implications for Regional and Pan-Regional Interaction within the Northern Mesoamerican Periphery. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:255–270.Google Scholar
Ttakon, Paula 2001 Macrobotanical Study: Zacatecas, México. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/turkon/turkon.htm Google Scholar
Ward, David 1967 A Study of Canutillo Red-Filled Engraved Pottery. Unpublished Master’s thesis. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil 1977 La prehistoria de Zacatecas: Una Interpretatión. In Zacatecas, anuario de historia I, edited by Cuautémoc Esparza Sanchez, pp. 203–249. Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, México.Google Scholar
Weintraub, Paula 1989 Apéndice IIb: Analisis de flotatión. In Informe técnico final sobre las excavaciones en el sitio arqueológico MV-138 (Las Adjuntas): Una aldea de La Quemada, Zacatecas, México (2003 revision), edited by Charles D. Trombold, pp. 93–94, Archivos Técnicos del INAH, México, D. F.Google Scholar
Whitecotton, Joseph, and Pailes, Richard 1986 New World Precolumbian World Systems. In Ripples in the Chichimec Sea: New Considerations of Southwestern-Mesoamerican Interactions, edited by Francis Joan Mathien and Randall H. McGuire, pp. 135–154, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale,Google Scholar