Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-03T13:19:17.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Chronology of Conquest: Implications of New Radiocarbon Analyses from the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles S. Spencer  and
Elsa M. Redmond
Charles S. Spencer
Affiliation:
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, cspencer@amnh.org
Elsa M. Redmond
Affiliation:
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192,eredmond@amnh.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recently obtained radiocarbon determinations from the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, have made it possible to revise the chronological placement of the Perdido phase (from 600-200 B. C. to 750-300 B. C.) and the Lomas phase (from 200 B. C.-A. D. 200 to 300 B. C.-A. D. 200), the latter being the phase for which substantial evidence of a Zapotec conquest of the Cañada has been recovered. The revised chronology brings the Lomas phase into close alignment with the Late Monte Albán I (300-100 B. C.) and the Monte Albán II (100 B. C.-A. D. 200) phases, during which the early Zapotec state emerged with its capital at Monte Albán in the Oaxaca Valley. The new Cañada dates support the proposition that territorial expansion outside the Oaxaca Valley played a major role very early in the process of Zapotec primary state formation. This strategy of extra-Valley expansion appears to have been initiated before all areas within the Oaxaca Valley were fully integrated into the Zapotec state.

Nuevas fechas radiocarbónicas provenientes de la Cañada de Cuicatlán, en el Estado de Oaxaca, México, nos llevan a revisar las duraciones cronológicas de la fase Perdido (de 600-200 a. C. a 750-300 a. C.) y la fase Lomas (de 200 a. C.-200 d. C. a 300 a. C.-200 d. C.), ambas definidas durante nuestras investigaciones de campo en 1977-78. Dichas investigaciones nos convencieron que la Cañada fue conquistada por el estado zapoteco al principio de la fase Lomas. Esta conclusión acordó con ciertas inscripciones en Monte Albán, la capital del estado zapoteco en el Valle de Oaxaca. Las evidencias arqueológicas recuperadas en la Cañada incluyeron una disrupción profunda en los patrones de asentamiento: todos los sitios de la fase Perdido fueron abandonados y asentamientos nuevos de la fase Lomas fueron establecidos encima de lomas cercanas. En el extremo norte de la Cañada, un sitio pequeño de la fase Perdido fue sucedido por un complejo de sitios grandes y fortificados, que protegían la única entrada natural a la Cañada de Tehuacán y otras regiones al norte. Nuestras excavaciones en el sitio de Llano Perdido revelaron que la comunidad fue completamente quemada al final de la fase Perdido. La ocupación sucesiva de la fase Lomas fue establecida encima de la adyacente Loma de La Coyotera. Cambios significantes ocurrieron en la vida económica, social, y religiosa de los habitantes durante la fase Lomas. Las actividades económicas se especializaron, enfocandose en la cultivación por riego de ciertas frutas nativas de esta zona de tierra caliente, quizás para cumplir con demandas tributarias. Los patrones residenciales cambiaron de las unidades multifamiliares de la fase Perdido a un patrón de residencias unifamiliares, ubicadas en terrazas. Las plataformas, elementos, y artifactos ceremoniales de Llano Perdido fueron sucedidos en Loma de La Coyotera por una plaza adonde un tzompantli fue montado; los nuevos resultados radiocarbónicos nos permiten fechar este tzompantli con aun más exactitud a la fase Lomas. Las nuevas fechas alinean la fase Lomas de la Cañada más precisamente con las fases Monte Albán I Tardía (300-100 a. C.) y Monte Albán II (100 a. C.-200 d. C.) de la cronología del Valle de Oaxaca. Concluimos que los nuevos resultados respaldan la proposición que una campaña de expansionismo territorial afuera del Valle de Oaxaca fue lanzada muy temprano en el proceso de surgimiento del estado zapoteco. Es probable que esta campaña de expansionismo afuera del Valle de Oaxaca fue iniciada antes de que el estado zapoteco lograra dominar el Valle entero.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 2001 , pp. 182 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2000

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

Acosta, Jorge 1965 Preclassic and Classic Architecture of Oaxaca. In Hand-book of Middle American Indians, vol. 3: Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica, part 2, edited by Robert Wauchope and Gordon R. Willey, pp. 814–836. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Algaze, Guillermo 1993 Expansionary Dynamics of Some Early Pristine States. American Anthropologist 95:304–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balkansky, Andrew K. 1997 Archaeological Settlement Patterns of the Sola Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., Feinman, Gary M., Kowalewski, Stephen A., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1999 Ancient Oaxaca: The Monte Albán State. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Burgoa, Fray Francisco de 1674 Geográfica descripción, Vol. 2. Reprinted in Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación No. 26. Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, México, D.F. (1934).Google Scholar
Carneiro, Robert L. 1970 A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169:733–738.Google Scholar
Carneiro, Robert L. 1992 The Role of Natural Selection in the Evolution of Culture. Cultural Dynamics 5:113–140.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1947 Calendario y escritura de las antiguas culturas de Monte Albán. In Obras Completas de Miguel Othón de Mendizábal. Vol. 1, pp. 5–102. México, D.F. Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso, Bernal, Ignacio, and Acosta, Jorge 1967 La cerámica de Monte Albán. Memorias del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 13. México, D.F. Google Scholar
Drennan, Robert D. 1983 Appendix: Radiocarbon Dates for the Oaxaca Region. In The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec andMixtec Civilizations, edited by Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus, pp. 363–370. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. 1998 Scale and Social Organization: Perspectives on the Ancient State. In Archaic States, edited by Gary Feinman and Joyce Marcus, pp. 95–133. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1990 At the Margins of the Monte Albán State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 1:216–246.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1999 Process and Agency in Early State Formation. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9:3–21.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., and Marcus, Joyce 1976 Evolution of the Public Building in Formative Oaxaca. In Cultural Continuity and Change: Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by Charles Cleland, pp. 205–221. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., and Marcus, Joyce 1983 Origins of the State in Oaxaca: Editors’ Introduction. In The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations, edited by Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus, pp. 79–83. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V., and Marcus, Joyce 1990 Borrón y Cuenta Nueva: Setting Oaxaca’s Archaeological Record Straight. In Debating Oaxaca Archaeology, edited by Joyce Marcus, pp. 17–69. Anthropological Papers No. 84. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura, Blanton, Richard E., and Nicholas, Linda 1989 Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs No. 23. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1976 Iconography of Militarism at Monte Albán and Neigh-boring Sites in the Valley of Oaxaca. In The Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, edited by Henry B. Nicholson, pp. 123–139. UCLA Latin American Center, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1980 Zapotec Writing. Scientific American 242:50–64.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1992 Dynamic Cycles of Mesoamerican States. National Geographic Research and Exploration 8:392–411.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce, and Flannery, Kent V. 1996 Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Redmond, Elsa M. 1983 A Fuego y Sangre: Early Zapotec Imperialism in the Cuicatlán Cañada, Oaxaca. Memoirs No. 16. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Redmond, Elsa M., and Spencer, Charles S. 1982 Chiefdom and State in Formative Oaxaca. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 13(2):7–38.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S. 1982 The Cuicatlán Cañada and Monte Albán: A Study of Primary State Formation. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S. 1987 Rethinking the Chiefdom. In Chiefdoms in the Americas, edited by Robert D. Drennan and Carlos A. Uribe, pp. 369–390. University Press of America, Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S. 1990 On the Tempo and Mode of State Formation: Neoevo-lutionism Reconsidered. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:1–30.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S. 1998 A Mathematical Model of Primary State Formation. Cultural Dynamics 10:5–20.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S. 1999 Palatial Digs. Natural History 108(2):94–95.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S., and Redmond, Elsa M. 1997 Archaeology of the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca. Anthropological Papers No. 80. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S., and Redmond, Elsa M. 2000 Lightning and Jaguars: Iconography, Ideology, and Politics in Formative Cuicatlán, Oaxaca. In Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints, edited by Gary M Feinman and Linda Manzanilla, pp. 145–175. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles S., and Redmond, Elsa M. 2001 Multilevel Selection and Political Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca, 500–100 B.C. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, in press.Google Scholar
Talma, A. S., and Vogel, John C. 1993 A Simplified Approach to Calibrating C14 Dates. Radiocarbon 35:317–322.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard G. 1997 Human Skeletal Remains from La Coyotera. Appendix B in The Archaeology of the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca, by Charles S. Spencer and Elsa M. Redmond, pp. 614–620. Anthropological Papers No. 80. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Wright, Henry T. 1977 Recent Research on the Origin of the State. Annual Review of Anthropology 6:379–397.Google Scholar
Wright, Henry T. 1986 The Evolution of Civilizations. In American Archaeology: Past and Future, edited by David Meltzer, Don Fowler, and Jeremy Sabloff, pp. 323–365. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar