Place-Making and Power in the Terminal Formative: Excavations on Río Viejo’s Acropolis

Joyce, Arthur A.; Levine, Marc N.; Barber, Sarah B.

doi:10.5876/9781607322023.c05

Cited by 6 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…Other researchers using architectural energetic analysis in Mesoamerica have experienced similar complications (e.g. Joyce et al 2013;Murakami 2019).…”

Section: Architectural Energetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Architectural energetic analysis provides crucial insight into labour investment and organisation (e.g. Abrams 1994;Webster & Kirker 1995;Murakami 2010;Joyce et al 2013). Estimating the labour investment for monumental public building projects at San Andrés in the post-TBJ eruption period provides important data about the human response to the catastrophic volcanic event.…”

Section: Architectural Energetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human responses to the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven eruption: excavations at San Andrés, El Salvador

Ichikawa

2021

Antiquity

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Human responses to catastrophic natural events form an important research theme in archaeology. Using excavation and radiocarbon data, this article investigates the socio-cultural impact of the mid-first-millennium AD Tierra Blanca Joven eruption at San Andrés, El Salvador. The data, along with an architectural energetic analysis of the Campana structure at San Andrés, indicate that survivors and/or re-settlers made considerable efforts to construct monumental public buildings immediately following the eruption, using large quantities of volcanic tephra as construction material. Such re-building played important religious, social and political roles in human responses to the eruption. The study contributes to discussions about human creativity, adaptation and resilience in the face of abrupt environmental change.

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“…Other researchers using architectural energetic analysis in Mesoamerica have experienced similar complications (e.g. Joyce et al 2013;Murakami 2019).…”

Section: Architectural Energetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Architectural Energetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Human responses to the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven eruption: excavations at San Andrés, El Salvador

Ichikawa

2021

Antiquity

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“…In this chapter, we build on more than a decade of research concerning the negotiation of political authority in complex societies (Barber 2005(Barber , 2013Barber and Joyce 2007;Joyce 2000Joyce , 2004Joyce , 2009Joyce , 2010Joyce , 2013aJoyce et al 2001) to examine initial political centralization during the Terminal Formative Period (150 bce-250 ce) in the lower Río Verde Valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca (figure 3.1). Based on excavations at the early urban center of Río Viejo, along with regional survey and excavations at several outlying sites, we examine the historical context for early political centralization.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archaeological research over the past twenty-five years on the Formative Period in the lower Río Verde Valley has provided a detailed, diachronic database that forms the basis of this chapter (Barber 2005(Barber , 2013Barber and Joyce 2007Joyce 1991aJoyce , 1991bJoyce , 1993Joyce , 2008Joyce , 2010Joyce , 2013aJoyce and Barber 2011, n.d.;Joyce and Levine 2009;Joyce and Winter 1989;Joyce et al 1998;Levine 2002Levine , 2013Workinger 2002). Archaeological research has included excavation at the Terminal Formative political seat of Río Viejo and lowerorder sites such as Cerro de la Cruz, Cerro de la Virgen, San Francisco de Arriba, Yugüe, Charco Redondo, Loma Don Genaro, and Barra Quebrada.…”

Section: The Late Formative Roots Of the Río Viejo Politymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other large sites included Charco Redondo, Cerro de la Virgen, Tututepec, and San Francisco de Arriba, all of which ranged in size from 60 to 72 hectares. Increased inequality is evident in mortuary offerings, domestic architecture, ceremonial caches, and monumental buildings (Barber 2005(Barber , 2013Barber and Olvera 2012;Barber et al 2009;Joyce 2005Joyce , 2006Joyce , 2010Joyce :186-95, 2013bJoyce and Barber 2011;Mayes and Barber 2008). The evidence from Río Viejo and outlying sites in the region show that during the Terminal Formative, community continued to be constituted through the construction and use of shared public spaces and monumental buildings as they had been in the Late Formative.…”

Section: Community and Authority In The Terminal Formativementioning

confidence: 99%

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Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Kurnick¹,

Baron²

2016

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1.1. Map of Mesoamerica showing locations of case studies from this volume by chapter number: (2) Ceibal, Guatemala; (3) coastal Oaxaca; (4) central Jalisco; (5) La Corona, Guatemala; (6) Teotihuacan; (7) Maya area and Mixteca Alta; (8) central Michoacán 2.1. Map showing the location of Ceibal 2.2. Map of Ceibal, 1 meter contours 2.3. Map of La Libertad, Chiapas, as an example of the Middle Formative Chiapas pattern 2.4. A carved shell pendant representing a decapitated head, from Ceibal Cache 108 (ca. 800 bce) 3.1. Map of the lower Río Verde, showing archaeological sites mentioned in the text 3.2. Terminal Formative Period ritual offerings in public buildings and at Cerro de la Virgen 3.3. Plan of the acropolis at Río Viejo 3.4. Adobe retaining wall on the western end of the acropolis with bricks made from three different clay sources 3.5. Offering in Structure 1 from Cerro de la Virgen with stone rain deity mask 3.6. Photo of a section of the earth oven on the acropolis at Río Viejo 3.7. Late Terminal Formative iconographic gray wares FIGURES x 4.1. Map of western highland Mexico, indicating the groups discussed in chapter 4 4.2. Examples of each of the forms of built space proposed, as associated with specific social institutions and strategies 4.3. Ceramic model depicting a burial procession, with pallbearers carrying the dead 4.4. A design within a votive bowl used in Náyari temples and the explicit symbolism embodied in the design 5.1. Map of the Maya area showing the location of La Corona 5.2. Map of the Coronitas group 5.3. The family tree of La Corona's main royal lineage and other La Corona rulers 5.4. South profile of Structure 13R-2 showing principal phases of construction 6.1. Location of architectural complexes mentioned in the text 6.2. Diachronic changes in total labor costs for the central precinct 6.3. Feathered Serpent Pyramid at the Ciudadela 6.4. Diachronic changes in labor costs for major pyramids and administrative/residential structures within the central precinct 6.5. Human representations during the Xolalpan-Metepec phases 6.6. Layout of some apartment compounds 6.7. Plan of the Street of the Dead Complex 7.1. Map of the Maya area 7.2. Detail map of Oaxaca showing selected sites in the Mixteca Alta FIGURES xi 7.3. Map of the region between Piedras Negras, Guatemala, and Yaxchilan, Mexico, showing border sites and fortifications along the northern border of the Yaxchilan kingdom 195 7.4. Detail from page 22 of the Codex Zouche-Nuttall showing the toponyms of subsidiary and border settlements inside of the glyph for the ñuu 199 7.5. Detail of the Lienzo de Ocotepec, an early Colonial document showing the boundaries between Santo Tomas Ocotepec and Santa Maria Cuquila 200 8.1. Extent of the Tarascan empire and major lake basins referred to in text 219 8.2. Major Late Postclassic urban sites in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin 225 8.3. Local elite identity in burial 9 at Urichu. Spouted polychrome vessel and several bronze and shell earrings 227 8.4. Ritual center of Ihuatzio 228

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Ensoulment, Entrapment, and Political Centralization

Joyce¹,

Barber²

2015

Current Anthropology

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however, need to consider the possibility that the degrees of internalization of these religious ideas by diverse social members during the prehispanic period may have been quite different from those after the Spanish conquest, when a stark opposition to Christianity and the colonial regime forced indigenous agents to consciously commit themselves to certain versions of religious propositions. We need to consider the possibility that meanings of religious acts in prehispanic Mesoamerica may have been highly fluid, diverse, incoherent, and polysemic. I do agree that different narratives and practices in the lower Río Verde Valley and the Valley of Oaxaca that Joyce and Barber discuss are important factors affecting the divergent trajectories of these regions. But at the same time, I suspect that the degree and way of standardization and the coexisting diversity and incoherence within individual communities may be equally important aspects that conditioned courses of social change. This nature of standardization and diversity deserves further inquiry. I would like to add that the Terminal Formative was a time of significant social change not only in Oaxaca but also in other parts of Mesoamerica. At the onset of this period, Teotihuacan became a powerful center in central Mexico, and in southern Mesoamerica, many centers, including El Mirador, Kaminaljuyu, and Takalik Abaj, accelerated the process of political centralization. The end of the Terminal Formative was marked by political disintegration, as Joyce and Barber describe for the lower Río Verde Valley. While Teotihuacan and Monte Albán continued to prosper, many centers in southern Mesoamerica, such as El Mirador and Kaminaljuyu, collapsed. We need to examine whether shared religious or other social practices affected these patterns or whether external factors, such as climate change, played a more important role. Our understanding of Mesoamerican religions is still limited, and their diverse aspects and their relations to social processes need to be further examined. This stimulating article by Joyce and Barber represents an important step in this regard and encourages us to explore this critical issue.

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Place-Making and Power in the Terminal Formative: Excavations on Río Viejo’s Acropolis

Abstract: Map of the state of Oaxaca showing geographical regions and archaeological sites mentioned in the book.

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

Human responses to the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven eruption: excavations at San Andrés, El Salvador

Human responses to the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven eruption: excavations at San Andrés, El Salvador

Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Ensoulment, Entrapment, and Political Centralization

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