Archaeological investigations in southern Veracruz, Mexico, have
traditionally focused on the impressive achievements of the Early
Formative Olmec, one of Mesoamerica's earliest complex societies.
Fewer studies have investigated post-Olmec cultural developments. Research
in parts of the middle San Juan and lower Coatzacoalcos drainages of
southern Veracruz provides new data on the Epiclassic period, when
population levels exceeded the Olmec period. This paper examines
settlement patterns and architectural complexes to interpret the political
organization extant during the Epiclassic. Two largely polarized political
models are examined, one segmentary and the other centralized. Perhaps not
surprisingly, the data are consistent with aspects of both models.
Finally, data are compared to other nearby regions to place the study area
in a larger regional context. Traditionally conceived as a monolithic
region, the southern Gulf lowlands are better characterized by cultural
variation, population discontinuities, and intra- and interregional
interaction.