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Developmental Implications of Earlier Dates for Early Aztec in the Basin of Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Jeffrey R. Parsons ,
Elizabeth Brumfiel  and
Mary Hodge
Jeffrey R. Parsons
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Elizabeth Brumfiel
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Albion College, Albion, MI 49224, USA
Mary Hodge
Affiliation:
School of Human Sciences and Humanities, University of Houston at Clear Lake, Houston, TX 77058, USA
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Abstract

Archaeologists working in the Basin of Mexico have long accepted a chronology in which sequential ceramic phases (Metepec, Coyotlatelco, Mazapan, Aztec I, and Aztec II) define the period between the last stages of Classic Teotihuacan and the immediate antecedents of Late Postclassic Tenochtitlan. The absolute chronology of these phases has remained tentative, and there have been hints of possible temporal overlap between some of them. A series of 37 new radiocarbon dates from three deep, stratified sites in the Basin of Mexico suggest (1) that the traditional sequence of phases is essentially valid; (2) that both Coyotlatelco and Aztec I may have begun significantly earlier than traditionally believed; (3) that there may have been partial chronological overlap between Late Coyotlatelco and Early Aztec I in some parts of the basin; (4) that there was probably little significant temporal overlap between Aztec I and Aztec II; and (5) that the ethnohistorically recognized sociopolitical complexity of the long era in question is amply reflected in a regional ceramic sequence that still requires considerable refinement in both time and space.

Type
Special Section: Recent Chronological Research in Central Mexico
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Fall 1996 , pp. 217 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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