Shifting Alliances: Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Interactions at Cerro Portezuelo

Abstract

This analysis takes a diachronic view of Epiclassic and Early Postclassic period production and consumption patterns of diagnostic pottery complexes at Cerro Portezuelo. Stylistic and chemical characterization studies indicate a dramatic shift in the directionality and participation in pottery complexes through time throughout the Basin of Mexico. In the Epiclassic period, Cerro Portezuelo was a participant in a southern basin cultural complex. Early Postclassic pottery at Cerro Portezuelo indicates full participation in the Mazapan/Tollan pottery complex extending from Tula, through Teotihuacan, and into the southern Texcoco region. This study expands upon a previous compositional study of Cerro Portezuelo materials that indicate that Epiclassic and Early Postclassic pottery consumption was predominantly from local sources in the southeastern basin. The current study further identifies stylistic affiliations in decorated pottery types with neighboring areas within the basin and significantly increases the sample size for Epiclassic and Early Postclassic compositional data at Cerro Portezuelo.

Teotihuacan

“…The existence of a transitional ceramic phase in the Basin of Mexico has been debated for decades (Crider 2011(Crider , 2013Crider et al 2007;García 2004;Manzanilla and López 1998;Parsons and Sugiura 2012;Rattray 2001;Sanders 2006;Sugiura 2006). Sanders (1986Sanders ( , 2006) even questioned the status of Metepec that Rattray (2001) defined as the final Teotihuacan phase.…”

“…He proposed that an Early Epiclassic transitional phase, Oxtotipac, was the final phase of the city as a large population center. Recent comparative studies of Epiclassic and Early Postclassic pottery from central Mexico have advanced the ceramic phasing (Crider 2011(Crider , 2013Fournier and Bolaños 2007;Fournier et al 2006;García et al 2006;Gaxiola 2006;Sugiura 2005). Crider (2011, pp.…”

“…If this transitional pottery complex were associated with migrants moving into caves behind the Sun Pyramid and at Oxtotipac, as Crider suggests, that would explain why such ceramics are not present everywhere at Teotihuacan. The Early Epiclassic pottery complex also signals a marked decline in ceramic exchange between subregions of the Basin of Mexico (Crider 2011(Crider , 2013Nichols et al 2013).…”

“…The Epiclassic settlement clusters representing small polities or city-states can be differentiated from each other by unoccupied spaces between them and by local ceramic variation documented in the last decade (Crider 2011(Crider , 2013Fournier and Bolaños 2007;García 2004, pp. 351-354;Gaxiola 2006;López and Nicolás 2005;Parsons and Sugiura 2012;Sterpone 2004;Rattray 2006;Sugiura 2006; see also Cobean 1990, pp.…”

Symbolic bones and interethnic violence in a frontier zone, northwest Mexico, ca. 500–900 C.E.

“…was a time of rapid social and demographic change throughout Mesoamerica that began with the collapse of the massive city of Teotihuacan (1)(2)(3). Styles of architecture, costume, and iconography merged across old boundaries.…”