Farming and Catastrophe at La Joya: A Consideration of Agricultural Intensification and Risk in the Formative Sierra de los Tuxtlas

Abstract

espanolEste estudio examina el proceso de sedentarizacion, intensificacion agricola y desarrollo de una jerarquia politica regional durante el periodo Formativo (1400 a. C.-300 d. C.) a lo largo de la costa meridional del Golfo de Mexico, en la zona olmeca de la Sierra de los Tuxtlas. Los resultados obtenidos analizando los datos de animales y plantas provenientes del sitio de La Joya, un pueblo agricola ubicado en el sur de Veracruz (Mexico) que abarca todo el Formativo, indican que la intensificacion del maiz fue un proceso largo y gradual que se inicio en la fase media de esta etapa, cientos de anos antes del establecimiento de un centro regional. A finales del Formativo Tardio, despues de su consolidacion politica, una severa erupcion volcanica cubrio con ceniza la region. Los aldeanos de La Joya respondieron a esta catastrofe incrementando la produccion de maiz en las inmediaciones y ampliando sus territorios de caza y pesca para explotar una gama mas amplia de animales. EnglishThis paper examines the process of agricultural intensification as it occurred during the Formative period (1400 BC-AD 300) along the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico. Over the course of two millennia, rural villagers living in the Olmec hinterland of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas invested more time and labor into farming activities as they became increasingly sedentary and dealt with episodic volcanic eruptions and ash fall. This period of time witnessed the development of a regional political hierarchy in the Tuxtlas, which also had consequences for village-level subsistence. In examining agricultural intensification in the context of volcanic catastrophe and political development, I analyze archaeological plant and animal data from the site of La Joya, a farming village located in southern Veracruz, Mexico spanning the Formative period. The subsistence data indicate that maize intensification was a long, incremental process that began in the Middle Formative period, hundreds of years before political development and the establishment of a regional center. At the close of the Late Formative period, after the region’s political consolidation, a severe volcanic eruption blanketed the region with ash, leading to significant, if temporary, environmental circumscription. La Joya villagers responded to this catastrophe by intensifying maize production on infields and expanding their hunting and fishing territories to exploit a wider range of animal prey.