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A Reconsideration of Chronology for the La Quemada Portion of the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles D. Trombold*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130

Abstract

The massively fortified ceremonial center of La Quemada on the northern mesoamerican frontier has long been thought to date primarily to the Postclassic period. New evidence now supports the contention that La Quemada's florescence was earlier and perhaps longer than previously recognized. Four lines of evidence support this conclusion: (1) reevaluation of Armillas’ published 14C dates, (2) regional survey data, (3) new 14C dates from excavations on a large village site near La Quemada, and (4) recent chronological refinements in the Chalchihuites area for identifying the temporal position of tradewares. Several implications of this are discussed in terms of mesoamerican core-periphery relations.

Résumé

Résumé

Elprodigamente fortificado centro ceremonial de La Quemada, ubicado sobre la frontera norte mesoamericana, se pensó por muchas años que pertenecia a los tiempos Postclásicos. Nuevas evidencias indican que La Quemada floreció mas temprano. Cuatro fuentes de evidencia soportan esta conclusión: (1) reevaluación de las fechas de radiocarbono publicados para el area por Armillas, (2) información de reconocimientos regionales, (3) nuevas fechas de radiocarbono obtenidas de materiales excavados de una aldea grande ubicada cerca de La Quemada, y (4) reciente refinamiento cronológico del area de Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, para la identificación de la posición temporal de unos tipos de cerámica. Varios implicaciones de estos tópicos son discutidos en términos de su posición con relaciones a areas periféricas mesoamericanas.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990

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References

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