Tres Zapotes Research Articles

Settlement and the exploitation of aquatic resources in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico

Research conducted since 2003 in and around the regional center of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz documents the importance of aquatic resources and transportation routes for subsistence and settlement over more than two millennia. Systematic archaeological survey over more than 400 km2 in the surrounding Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin details a persistent focus of major settlements on streams and other bodies of water that would have provided an abundance of food and opportunities for water-born transport. Excavations at Tres Zapotes further indicate that exploitation of aquatic fauna was a significant component of a mixed subsistence strategy for the Olmec and Epi-Olmec inhabitants of the site, who obtained fish, turtles, and waterfowl from streams, lakes, estuaries and coastal marine environments over a range extending no less than 20 km from the center. Artifact inventories and landscape features further suggest an associated subsistence technology that included weighted nets and retention ponds in seasonally flooded areas.

The Environs of Tres Zapotes as the Find-Spot of the Tuxtla Statuette

The famous greenstone figure known as the Tuxtla Statuette is one of only 12 objects known to bear an epi-Olmec inscription and was the first to become known to scholarship. For more than a century its original find-spot was imprecisely and erroneously identified as lying in the township of San Andrés Tuxtla or, more generally, in the Tuxtla Mountains. Correspondence in the National Anthropology Archives of the Smithsonian Institution documents that the figure was found on the Hacienda de Hueyapan de Mimendi, near the colossal head of Tres Zapotes. Archival research in Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and the Archivo General del Estado de Veracruz, as well as interviews with descendants of owners of the Hacienda de Hueyapan and the statuette, allow us to confirm several features of the Smithsonian correspondence. The data indicate that the statuette was found within or very near the epi-Olmec regional center of Tres Zapotes and within the township of Santiago Tuxtla.

MAPPING MATACANELA: THE COMPLEMENTARY WORK OF LIDAR AND TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY IN SOUTHERN VERACRUZ, MEXICO

AbstractWe systematically compare methods used for topographical mapping of the archaeological site of Matacanela, located in the Tuxtla Mountains of Veracruz. Specifically, we compare the results of ArcMap 10.2–processed, publically accessible LiDAR-derived data, collected and distributed for no charge by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) in Mexico–with the results of traditional topographical mapping, undertaken using a Sokkia total station. These INEGI data are coarse-grained in comparison to many of the pay-for-service LiDAR datasets that have been generated for Mesoamerican sites and regions, such as Caracol (Chase et al. 2011, 2012, 2014), Izapa (Rosenswig et al. 2013), and Tres Zapotes (Loughlin et al. 2016). Here, we consider the two approaches and the type and quality of data achieved by each, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of using either approach alone. We strongly encourage scholars working in Mexico to avail themselves of these data whenever appropriate.

FORMATIVE OBSIDIAN PROCUREMENT AT TRES ZAPOTES, VERACRUZ, MEXICO: IMPLICATIONS FOR OLMEC AND EPI-OLMEC POLITICAL ECONOMY

AbstractWe report the results of chemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts from Tres Zapotes using X-ray fluorescence analysis. This is the first obsidian sourcing study for this major Olmec and Epi-Olmec center in which samples are drawn from secure archaeological proveniences specifically assigned to Early, Middle, Late Formative, and Protoclassic periods. We employed a stratified random sampling strategy to select 180 obsidian artifacts from excavated assemblages, supplementing the random sample with another 24 specimens drawn from rare visual categories. Consequently, we are able to characterize changes in the relative importance of different obsidian sources in the political economy of Tres Zapotes across the critical transition from Olmec to Epi-Olmec society with greater confidence than has been possible for the Gulf lowlands while extending our observations to the full sample of 5,713 visually characterized obsidian artifacts—2,695 of which come from the well-dated Formative contexts examined in this article. Our study confirms the absence of obsidian from Otumba and from Guatemalan sources in the excavated Olmec assemblage in favor of sources from eastern Puebla and Veracruz, supporting a model of overlapping autonomous networks for obsidian procurement at Gulf Olmec sites. Presence of the Guatemalan San Martín Jilotepeque source in Epi-Olmec contexts may relate to the reestablishment of trans-Isthmian contacts, while increasing prevalence of Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian from eastern Puebla marks the beginning of a long-term trend. Although more even representation of obsidian sources in Epi-Olmec contexts is consistent with the hypothesized transition from an exclusionary Olmec political economy toward a more “corporate” system associated with power sharing among factional leaders at Tres Zapotes, neither Olmec nor Epi-Olmec elites monopolized a particular obsidian source or technology.

Regional Variation in the Importance and uses of Maize in the Early and Middle Formative Olmec Heartland: New Archaeobotanical Data from the San Carlos Homestead, Southern Veracruz

AbstractThis article presents an archaeobotanical analysis from the site of San Carlos, a small Early/Middle Formative period homestead situated in the Coatzacoalcos River basin in the southern Veracruz lowlands, approximately 9 km southeast of San Lorenzo. Although archaeobotanical data from the Olmec heartland have become more widely reported in recent years, we still lack sufficient data to capture regional and temporal variation in plant foodways. Thus, we report the macrobotanical data from San Carlos and provide a quantitative comparison with existing data sets from other southern Veracruz sites with Early and Middle Formative components (La Joya and Tres Zapotes). Comparative analysis reveals that these three sites vary dramatically in terms of the ubiquity and abundance of maize, in addition to the frequencies of different fruit types. We interpret these differences in terms of (1) settlement location with respect to geographical positioning in terms of access to riverine wetlands and their resources and (2) their association with areas of developing sociopolitical power structures.

Olmec: colossal masterworks of ancient Mexico

Considered the mother culture of Mesoamerica, the Olmec developed an iconic and sophisticated artistic style as early as the second millennium B.C. This pre-Columbian civilization, which flourished in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco between 1400 and 400 B.C., is best known for the creation of colossal stone portrait heads of its rulers. Some weighing up to 24 tons, the monumental heads are among ancient America's most striking and beautiful masterpieces. In the fifteen years since the last major study of the Olmec, archaeologists have made significant finds at key sites in Mexico. This sweeping project brings together the most recent scholarship, along with a diverse selection of more than 100 monuments, sculptures, adornments, masks, and vessels, many of which have never traveled beyond Mexico's borders, that paint a rich portrait of life in the most important Olmec centers, including San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of the culture, distinctive variations in the art of different city sites, and the chronology and reach of the society during its apex. Centering on the concept of discovery, this wide-ranging volume presents a fresh look at Olmec civilization, recapturing the excitement that greeted the unearthing of the first colossal stone head in 1862.

THE EARLY HORIZON AT TRES ZAPOTES: IMPLICATIONS FOR OLMEC INTERACTION

AbstractModeling Olmec participation in Early Horizon interaction networks requires better understanding of the relations of Gulf Olmec communities with one another as well as with contemporaries elsewhere in Mesoamerica. We compare pottery, figurines, and obsidian assemblages from a recently isolated Early Formative component at Tres Zapotes with contemporary assemblages from San Lorenzo and Macayal, both in the Coatzacoalcos basin. Our analysis indicates that village inhabitants at Tres Zapotes interacted with populations in eastern Olman but also forged their own economic and social ties with central Veracruz and the Mexican highlands. This evidence suggests a heterogeneous politico-economic landscape in which multiple polities of varying complexity participated in overlapping networks of interaction, alliance, and competition within and beyond Olman.

Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Christopher A. Pool, editor. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003. 106 pp., figures, tables, bibliography. $25.00 (paper).

Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Christopher A. Pool, editor. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003. 106 pp., figures, tables, bibliography. $25.00 (paper).

Notes on Colossal Head No. 2 from Tres Zapotes

AbstractOne of the eleven known colossal stone heads attributed to the Olmec culture of southeastern Mexico has not been previously published. It is now in the town of Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz, and was brought there in 1951 from a locality about 2 mi. north of the village of Tres Zapotes. It is designated as Tres Zapotes Colossal Head No. 2, even though it is probably not associated directly with the Tres Zapotes site which produced Tres Zapotes Colossal Head No. 1. The sculpture weighs about 8.5 short tons and is made of a distinctive olivine-and augite-rich basalt from the Cerro el Vigia not more than 5 mi. away.

Additional Evidence of Wheeled Toys in Mexico

Two recent articles have pointed out the use of wheeled toys in pre-Spanish times in Mexico. Evidence points to ceramic wheeled toys having been used in several localities in that country. Ekholm found them at Panuco, Vera Cruz; Staub collected one just south of Panuco; Drucker describes several from Tres Zapotes, Vera Cruz; Charnay dug up some at Tenenepango, southeast of Mexico City; and one was obtained by Saville in the “valley of Oaxaca.” According to Caso, copper animals with legs perforated as for an axle probably came from Panama.

Archæological Work in Southern Mexico

AFTER four month is of field work near San Lorenzo, Veracruz Stprolln southern Mexico, on the third of a group of important centres of the La Vent a culture, a join archæological expedition of the National Gemcaphic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, led by Dr. Matthew W. Stirling, has returned to Washington. The season's activities mark the conclusion of eight years of work by Dr. Stirling. The inquiries began in 1939 with the uncovering of a huge basalt sculpture in the form of a human head, near Tres Zapotes, a village in Veracruz State. The site proved to have been a ceremonial centre marked also by earthen mounds. One of the most important discoveries during the series of expeditions was made at Tres Zapotes in 1939–an inscribed stelar faring in Mayan characters the earliest recorded date, believed to be contemporary, so far brought to light in the western hemisphere. The date has been interpreted as 291 B.C. according to the Spinden correlation or 31 B.C., Thompson correlation. In the following year, Dr. Stirling and his associates began excavations at the site of La Venta, Tabasco, so rich in monuments and artefacts that it has given its name to the newly discovered culture. La Venta, unlike the other two ceremonial centres, was a place of burial for important personages among the La Venta people. The San Lorenzo site, worked in 1946, is the farthest inland of the three sites excavated. It lies about sixty miles from the Gulf of Mexico on the Rio Chiquito. It is also the most extensive of the centres, and there, apparently, the sculpture of the La Venta culture reached its highest development. The five huge heads discovered are for the most part better made, better preserved, and bigger titan those from the other locations. Some of the heads are nearly ten feet high and are estimated to wefgh more than twenty tons. It seems that the La Venta culture at Tres Zapotes started about A.D. 300 and lasted there until about A.D. 1000. The La Venta and San Lorenzo sites apparently were developed later and abandoned earlier. The correlation of art forms and pottery types points to the probability that the La Venta culture was a forerunner of much of the culture of the Mayas, the Toltecs and the Aztecs.

Ceramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico

Ceramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico

Ceramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Vera Cruz, Mexico. By Philip Drucker.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsCeramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Vera Cruz, Mexico. By Philip Drucker.Linton Satterthwaite Jr.Linton Satterthwaite Jr. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 49, Number 2April–June 1945 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 1Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/499713 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright © 1945 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Ceramic Sequences at Tres Zapotes, Mexico

THE second season's work of the National Geographic–Smithsonian Institution joint archæological expedition to southern Veracruz in 1940 has now been described in Bull. 140 of the Bureau of American Ethnology*. Bull. 139, giving an account of the 1939 season's work by G. W. Weiant, has already been noticed in Nature (July 22, 1944, p. 124). The aim of the 1940 work, by Philip Drucker, was to follow up the preliminary exploration of 1939 with careful stratigraphical excavations, upon which a ceramic sequence could be based. The results indicate two considerable alterations in Weiant's succession. The evidence is not absolutely conclusive on every point, but it is sufficient to confirm the suggestion made in the previous notice that his publication was premature.

An Introduction to the Ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Vera Cruz, Mexico

An Introduction to the Ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Vera Cruz, Mexico

Excavations at Tres Zapotes, Mexico*

AN account has now been issued of the first season's work of the joint expedition of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution to Tres Zapotes. The site is a large one, and the remains consist of earth mounds with little or no masonry. The deposits are tentatively assigned to three periods, Middle Tres Zapotes A and B and Upper Tres Zapotes. This nomenclature depends on the existence of a Lower Tres Zapotes horizon, discovered during the work of the second season.

Mayan Chronology: New Evidence

A JOINT expedition of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and the National Geographic Society, which is engaged in the excavation of a site at Tres Zapotes, in the State of Vera Cruz, southern Mexico (according to a communication issued by Science Service, Washington), has discovered a date monument which, it is anticipated, will settle a much-debated question of the authentic age of the reputedly earliest known dated Mayan object, and at the same time determine how and when the ancient Maya first spread over Central America. The site at Tres Zapotes, it is to be noted, is at least one hundred miles west of what had hitherto been believed to be the Mayan zone. Reports of the early results of excavation indicate that the site at Tres Zapotes is early; but the dating of the recently discovered monument is in the so-called ‘short’ style, which has generally been regarded as a late invention. Apart from its intrinsic interest, the question whether this style of dating was or was hot in use in the early period of Mayan civilization is of importance in its bearing on the age of the famous jade statuette of a priest now in the National Museum, Washington. This statuette bears a dating equivalent, on the Spinden correlation, to May 16, 98 B.C., and if this be taken at its face value, the statuette is the oldest known dated Mayan object. The date, however, is written according to the ‘short’ system, and question, therefore, has been raised whether the dating is contemporary, or was added in a later period, or whether, indeed, the statuette itself may not be an archaistic piece. Dr. Matthew W. Stirling, who is in charge of the excavation, has summoned a conference of archaeologists to be held on the site, to discuss whether they confirm his conclusion that the newly discovered monument is ‘early’.