Late Formative Community Organization and Social Complexity on the Oaxaca Coast

Abstract

AbstractExcavations at Cerro de la Cruz on the western coast of Oaxaca exposed the remains of two residential terraces from the Late Formative Period (400–100 B.C.). Portions of 11 Late Formative structures were cleared, including probable residences, storehouses, and a public building. Burials yielded the remains of 84 individuals dated to the same period. Intrasite patterning of selected artifacts, architecture, and features as well as comparative data on residential patterning are used to examine social complexity at Cerro de la Cruz. The data suggest that the site was part of a coastal chiefdom, though inequalities in social status appear to have been less pronounced than in other Late Formative chiefdoms from the Oaxacan interior.