Ceramic exchange and the shifting political landscape in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, 700 BCE-200 CE

Abstract

In this paper we utilize archaeometric analyses to reexamine the organization and spatial scale of ceramic exchange in the central Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, with the goal of elucidating how those interactions were related to political centralization, interpolity conflict, and social negotiation during the period when the Monte Albán (Zapotec) state formed. Building on extensive geochemical analyses of the valley’s clays and Formative ceramics, we employ relatively fine-grained provenance data to trace the movement of vessels from producers to consumers, and model the different forms of exchange through which pottery was distributed. The results of these analyses accord with earlier models positing the development of market exchange, at least of utilitarian vessels. However, the number and scale of market networks fluctuated through time due to political fragmentation and conflict prior to the subjugation of the entire valley by Monte Albán. At the same time, some elaborate pottery likely was distributed via non-market forms of exchange, such as gift-giving and direct acquisition from sponsored potters. The circulation of such pottery helped to build and maintain intra- and interpolity alliances, as well as to reinforce—and in some cases resist—increasing social differentiation within the early Zapotec state.