Formative Period Social Change in the Lower Rio Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

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The social impact of anthropogenic landscape modification in the Río Verde drainage basin, Oaxaca, Mexico

“…Geomorphological research included mapping of current landscape features, sampling of recent surficial deposits, and sampling of sediments from archaeological excavations. However, the focus of the geomorphological sampling was the excavation of 42 nonarchaeological tests designed to examine the sedimentological history of the lower Rio Verde floodplain (for a complete methodological description, see Joyce, 1991a;Mueller, 1991aMueller, , 1991b. Nonarchaeological excavations consisted of sedimentological pits and auger cores (see Appendix).…”

“…Specifically, the east side of the floodplain lacked the large abandoned channels and ridge-and-swale topography that were so characteristic of the west side. Seven subsurface tests were sampled on the east side of the river, primarily to examine soil profile development on the floodplain (Joyce, 1991a;Mueller, 1991a Figure 5. Abandoned channels of Sampling Area €3.…”

“…While the lower Rio Verde Valley has not been as intensively studied as the highland valleys, recent research in the region has yielded evidence for complex societies as early as the Late Formative (400-100 B.C. ; Joyce, 1991aJoyce, , 1991bJoyce and Winter, 1989).…”

“…In addition, the position of the river, hugging the western edge of the valley along the piedmont, would have left only a small area for floodplain development to the west. Furthermore, sedimentological data from the 1986 excavations at Barra Quebrada indicate that the barrier islands along the lower Rio Verde coastline had yet to form at that time (Joyce, 1991a;Winter and Joyce, 1987). This suggests that today's large estuaries were then much more open embayments, so that the abundance of estuarine species may have been limited.…”

“…The RVFP was designed to examine Formative Period (1500 B.C.-A.D. 250) social development in the lower Rfo Verde Valley through a program of archaeological and geomorphological research (Joyce, 1991a(Joyce, , 1991bJoyce and Winter, 1989;Joyce et al, 1989;Mueller, 1991aMueller, , 1991b. The research differs from previous studies in that it examines the effects of changing land-use practices in the upper basin of the Rio Verde on environments and human populations in the lower reaches of the river ( Figure 1).…”