Aztec provincial administration at Cuetlaxtlan, Veracruz

Ohnersorgen, Michael A.

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2005.06.001

Cited by 25 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Results of this comparative investigation suggest that Teotihuacan developed consolidation strategies based on the shifting social, historical, and ecological conditions of different regions. Several New World empires have been compared in terms of regional administrative strategies (Berdan et al 1996; Conrad and Demarest 1984; Ohnersorgen 2006; Schreiber 1992; Stanish 1997). As an early urban, multiethnic state without regional precedent, Teotihuacan deserves a more prominent role in this dialogue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the Long Arm of the State: Teotihuacan's Relations in the Basin of Mexico

Clayton

2013

Ancient Mesoam

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The city of Teotihuacan has long been viewed as a primate center, dominating surrounding settlements in the Basin of Mexico politically and economically, but its specific relationships with subordinate polities are not well understood. In this article I consider the diverse roles that two rural settlements played in the intraregional structure of the Teotihuacan state. Specifically, I investigate differences in architecture and ceramic assemblages at Axotlan, in the Cuauhtitlan region to the west, and Cerro Portezuelo, in the Texcoco region to the south. Results of this research demonstrate that Teotihuacan's relationships with smaller settlements in the Basin of Mexico differed considerably in intensity and changed through time. This variation reflects specific administrative and economic strategies crafted by the state as well as varying degrees of political and economic autonomy among rural settlements.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the Long Arm of the State: Teotihuacan's Relations in the Basin of Mexico

Clayton

2013

Ancient Mesoam

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“…Other strategies were intertwined and directed toward the sometimes direct and at other times indirect administration of those politico-economic relationships and commercial exchange networks by allied elites (Berdan and Smith 1996). As Ohnersorgen (2006) has noted, the degree of Aztec interference in particular provinces varied in a way similar to the mosaic pattern documented for the Wari empire of the western Andes (Schreiber 1992). Berdan (2003), Garraty and Ohnersorgen (2009); Garraty and Stark (2002); Ohnersorgen and Venter (2012), Silverstein (2001), Smith and Montiel (2001), Venter (2008), and Venter and Stoner (2009) have similarly noted that considerable variability in imperial control existed within Aztec-provincial hierarchies that resulted from different evaluation of costs and benefits of expenditures and cooperation, particular local historical trajectories, the complexity of preexisting local infrastructure, and the directness of imperial interactions.…”

Section: Aztec-provincial Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…In this account, Verdejo does not mention the municipal archives that he transcribed, but they and oral tradition likely informed part of his narrative. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to substantiate the specifics of Verdejo's migration account as they relate to Totogal, although conflict between Tlaxcala and Cotaxtla is well documented in other sources (Durán 1967; Ohnersorgen 2006). An unfortunate downside to oral traditions accumulated over several centuries is that they are likely to suffer significant alterations and embellishments.…”

Section: The Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Berdan (2003), Berdan and Smith (1996), Hicks (1994), Pollard and Smith (2003), Silverstein (2001), Smith and Berdan (1992), and Umberger and Klein (1993) have all discussed imperial strategies employed by the Aztecs. Studies by Curet et al (1994), Garraty and Stark (2002), Ohnersorgen (2006), Ohnersorgen and Venter (2012), Skoglund et al (2006), Stark (1990), Stark and Chance (2011), Umberger (1996), and Venter (2008) are more specific to the Gulf lowlands as well as the material correlates of the Aztec and local strategies that were employed there.…”

Section: Aztec-provincial Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Reassessment of the Extent of the Eastern Aztec Empire in the Mesoamerican Gulf Lowlands

Venter

2012

Ancient Mesoam

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Ethnohistoric documents have been used to define the eastern limits of the Aztec empire in the Mesoamerican southern Gulf lowlands with contradictory results. Until the research presented here, complementary archaeological evidence for Aztec imperial interactions has largely evaded detection in this region. In this paper, I review the documentary data for Aztec expansion and interactions near its eastern frontier and present the most robust archaeological evidence discovered to date that supports this imperial presence in the southern Gulf lowlands. A new model for imperial-local interaction is also introduced.

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“…Most are documented only through preliminary studies (e.g. Balkansky 1998;Balkansky et al 2004;Brumfiel 1980;Charlton et al 2000;Diaz Oyarzabal 1980;Fargher et al 2011;Garcia Cook 1998;Joyce et al 2004;Ohnersorgen 2005;Pérez Rodriguez et al 2011;Pollard 1977;Smith 1994;Smith et al 2009;Smyth et al 1995;Stark 1991;Pool 2003a;Santley et al 1986).…”

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confidence: 99%

Collecting Cities:

Whitelaw¹

2012

Archaeological Survey and the City

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Why survey cities? Urbanised societies have been characteristic of most of the Mediterranean region for the past two and a half millennia, longer to the east, with small numbers of urban centres in the Aegean from 2000 BC, and in the Levant from the later fourth millennium BC. There is healthy debate about the characteristics and roles of such centres, by no means uniform, but for most periods since their initial development or introduction in each local region, densely occupied communities with populations in at least the thousands have been the principal focal nodes within the landscape. They usually constitute the most complex and differentiated communities: socially, economically and politically. They are where significant proportions of the regional population resided, where the most far-reaching social, economic and political decisions were made, and where history was written, in the literal and figurative senses. Archaeologically, they have long been the principal focus of research, as Classical scholarship, pursuing the antiquarian tradition, documented sites and monuments mentioned in surviving written records. Broadening the questions, and the types of investigations needed to address them, has been a slow process; this can be tracked by perusing annual summaries of regional research over the past century. Until recently, uncovering yet another Greek temple or Roman basilica seems to have needed no justification; their value for understanding the past was assumed to be obvious. A major departure in the orientation of Mediterranean fieldwork emerged from the 1970s, with the wide proliferation and rapid methodological development of intensive regional field survey. This moved away from the high-profile remains, addressed more explicit questions, and with its almost invariably diachronic data, encouraged explicitly broad and comparative perspectives. The focus for such surveys, throughout the Mediterranean, has overwhelmingly been the rural landscape. In many cases, this was a reaction against the urban, monumental, and largely descriptive concentration of previous fieldwork. But it was also pragmatic, with small, relatively inexpensive surveys providing fieldwork opportunities for the rapidly expanding numbers of academic archaeologists wanting to work within the Mediterranean.

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Aztec provincial administration at Cuetlaxtlan, Veracruz

Cited by 25 publications

References 29 publications

Measuring the Long Arm of the State: Teotihuacan's Relations in the Basin of Mexico

Measuring the Long Arm of the State: Teotihuacan's Relations in the Basin of Mexico

A Reassessment of the Extent of the Eastern Aztec Empire in the Mesoamerican Gulf Lowlands

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