Multiproxy paleoecological reconstruction of prehistoric land-use history in the western region of the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

Paleoecological archives from three paleomeander sites and one archeological feature located in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico, are used to develop a spatial understanding of the patterns of prehistoric agricultural land use over the last ~3000 years. Multiproxy paleoecological data at each site (i.e. magnetic susceptibility, micro-and macroscopic charcoal, pollen and stable carbon isotopes) provide a history of land use. By examining the spatial differences in agricultural indicators at all the sites through time, augmented with our understanding of changes in demography and settlement patterns determined through the archeological record, we are able to reconstruct the complex human/land interactions in the western portion of the valley.

Geospatial modeling of pedestrian transportation networks: a case study from precolumbian Oaxaca, Mexico

“…Currently available paleo-environmental data do indicate changes in river courses and characteristics, the size and location of coastal lagoons, and the extent of human-derived land clearance over the past 3000 years (Goman et al, 2005(Goman et al, , 2010Pérez Rodríguez et al, 2011). These studies, however, deal with areas far smaller than the current study area and are insufficient to generate historic land cover maps.…”

Political Transformations and the Everyday in Postclassic Oaxaca

“…The lower Río Verde Valley has been a focus of archaeological fieldwork over the past 28 years (see summaries in Joyce , 2010Joyce , 2013. Archaeological excavations have been carried out at 19 sites, including horizontal and/or block excavations at eight of these (Barber 2005;Barber and Joyce 2011;Joyce 1991Joyce , 1999Joyce , 2010King 2003;Levine 2007;Workinger 2002).…”

“…We view social change as the outcome of negotiations among actors and coalitions with varying identities, interests, and worldviews (see also Hodder and Cessford 2004;Hutson 2010;Janusek 2004;Joyce 2010;Joyce et al 2001;Joyce and Lopiparo 2005;King 2006King , 2011Levine 2011;Pauketat 2001;Robin 2002;Yaeger 2003). We view social change as the outcome of negotiations among actors and coalitions with varying identities, interests, and worldviews (see also Hodder and Cessford 2004;Hutson 2010;Janusek 2004;Joyce 2010;Joyce et al 2001;Joyce and Lopiparo 2005;King 2006King , 2011Levine 2011;Pauketat 2001;Robin 2002;Yaeger 2003).…”

“…Scholars both within and across these two perspectives differ in a number of important ways including how rationality is addressed (Blanton and Fargher 2008:15-18; Levi 1981Levi , 1988Ortner 1984: 151-152); issues of methodological individualism (Giddens 1979: 94-95;Levi 1988:8;Ortner 1996); the degree to which social negotiations involve strategic action and intentionality, especially by elites (Blanton and Fargher 2008;Levi 1988;Ortner 2006: 134-137); and the degree to which cultural knowledge and material resources are considered to be distinct (Appadurai 1986;Blanton and Fargher 2008;Giddens 1984;Sewell 1992). In addition, even though archaeologists have been drawing on these theorists for more than three decades and are increasingly invoking social negotiation as an important concept, we see relatively few sophisticated case studies that have successfully applied this concept with well supported empirical data from the archaeological record (Fargher et al 2010;Janusek 2004;Joyce 2010;Levine 2011;Yaeger 2003). Despite their disparate theoretical foundations, we see an underlying similarity in the arguments of these two perspectives, which incorporate an understanding of political life in complex societies as historically and culturally contingent and as an outgrowth of negotiation among people and groups with divergent interests, identities, and power (see Barber 2013a, 2013b).…”

From Flesh to Clay: Formative Period Iconography from Oaxaca’s Lower Río Verde Valley

“…While agriculture is the predominant subsistence activity, people also exploit fish and shellfish from the river, ponds, estuaries, and ocean as well as wild plants and animals from terrestrial habitats (Rodríguez et al 1989). Paleoenvironmental research in the lower Río Verde Valley indicates that present ecological conditions emerged approximately 2,000 to 3,000 years ago (Goman et al 2005(Goman et al , 2010Joyce and Mueller 1997, Chapter 3). The Late Postclassic and early colonial cacicazgo of Tututepec first drew attention to the archaeological significance of the Oaxaca coast.…”