Otumba and Its Neighbors

Abstract

Otumba is one of a few Late Aztec-period city-states in the Basin of Mexico whose central city or town is not obscured by post-Conquest occupation. Long-term research there began in the early 1960s, with more recent fieldwork between 1987 and 1989, and has been complemented by intensive laboratory and technical analyses that are still underway. Traditional typological analyses have been aided by neutron activation analyses providing strong evidence of economic linkages between the Otumba city-state and raw material sources, as well as evidence of tribute and market distribution channels for finished products within and outside the Otumba city-state.

Teotihuacan

“…By the Late Postclassic (AD 1350-1521), Teotihuacan had become incorporated into a northern Acolhua exchange sphere in which it was one of two head administrative centers in the Teotihuacan Valley; the other was nearby Otumba (Carrasco 1999, pp. 265-266;Charlton et al 2000;Garraty 2006b, p. 177;Minc 2006;Nichols and Charlton 1996). The Late Postclassic saw increasing imports of Aztec III Black-on-orange pottery, especially from the Tenochtitlan composition group to the Teotihuacan Valley, a shift linked to the development of a hierarchical regional market network and Aztec imperialism.…”

Regional Settlement Pattern Studies

“…Stark and Garraty (2004) offer ways of evaluating surface evidence of pottery production. Charlton et al (2000) describe large-scale craft production in the Aztec world. Special activities away from habitation sites can be important in shaping regional economic systems, as Valdez et al (2005) show for salt in West Mexico and Neustupný and Venclová (2000) describe for iron-making in Bohemia.…”

8 Residential Pottery Production in Mesoamerica

“…By 1985 Barbara Stark (1985:Table 7.1) was able to list 25 sites and areas with some reported evidence for pottery production, including sites in Hidalgo, the Valley of Mexico, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. In the intervening time more pottery production localities have been reported from southern Veracruz (Arnold et al 1993; Ohnersorgen 2001; Pool 1990, 2003; Santley et al 1989; Stark 1985; 1989; 1992; 2007; Stark and Garrity 2004), Ejutla, Oaxaca (Balkansky et al 1997; Feinman and Nicholas 2000, 2007), Otumba, Mexico (Charlton et al 2000; 2007), and the Tepexi region of Puebla (Rattray 1990).…”