The Postclassic Occupation at Otumba

Abstract

AbstractThe Aztec city-state of Otumba is the focus of a long-term project of archaeological investigation. Analysis of surface and excavated ceramics and obsidian-hydration dates for the capital—Otumba—indicate a dispersed Mazapan occupation, a scattered early Aztec (Aztec II) occupation, and an intense Late Aztec (Aztec III) and Early Colonial (Aztec III/IV) occupation. In the paper we incorporate recent radiocarbon dates to refine the local late Postclassic chronology. A cluster of hydration dates suggests the early (Mazapan) occupation starts ca. a.d. 900. Aztec II ceramics, which are widely distributed in surface artifact collections, may begin as early as a.d. 1200 and continue until a.d. 1400, overlapping Aztec III ceramics, which we have dated from a.d. 1350 ± 50 to 1521 and later. Otumba continued to have a substantial occupation until ca. a.d. 1600/1620 in the early seventeenth century, when most of the Aztec town was abandoned.