Ceramic production and consumption in an in-between place: Instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramics from the Manialtepec Basin of Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

This paper reports the results of instrumental neutron activation analysis of 66 pottery samples from seven archaeological sites in the Manialtepec Basin of Oaxaca, Mexico. Located on the central Pacific coast, the Manialtepec Basin is a 60 km2 pocket surrounded by mountains and dominated by a 1200-ha lagoon. Settlement survey of the basin has identified 21 archaeological sites spanning the Late Formative (400–150 BCE) to the Late Postclassic (1100-1522CE) periods. Although the basin's small size and circumscribed agricultural terrain likely limited precolumbian populations, its geographic position would have placed it interstitially between several significant regional political centers, notably the lower Río Verde valley (57 km to the west), the Valley of Oaxaca (130 km to the north), and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (300 km to the east). Recent research has focused on understanding how inhabitants of the Manialtepec Basin engaged with other regions of Oaxaca and Mesoamerica. INAA results confirm the existence of a local ceramic industry, with pottery production and intra-basin exchange continuing for nearly 2000 years. The evidence also indicates that the basin's inhabitants were aware of, and actively involved in, broader regional trends in ceramic manufacture. They nonetheless maintained an independent and distinct local ceramic industry despite major geopolitical shifts like the collapse of Oaxacan metropoles and the conquest of the basin by the Mixtec Tututepec Empire in the Late Postclassic period. Our results highlight the agency and dynamism of potters in an in-between place.