Suprahousehold consumption and community ritual at La Laguna, Mexico

Abstract

La Laguna Mexico City 0 km 1000 N Recent work at La Laguna in Central Mexico provides an excellent illustration of the way in which information from architecture, food remains, ceramic vessels and chemical signatures can be brought together to demonstrate communal feasting associated with specific structures and public spaces. Structure 12M-3 contained a range of evidence indicative of food preparation and consumption. Ritual effigy vessels depicted deities connected with food and fertility, and fire and the hearth. Taken together, the several lines of evidence indicate that Structure 12M-3 was a special building, located directly behind the main temple and devoted to the preparation and production of communal feasts that were held in the adjacent plaza. This provides new insights into community life in the urban centres of early Mesoamerica.

Differences between biological and chronological age‐at‐death in human skeletal remains: A change of perspective

“…(c) 13 individuals (nine males, four females) from La Laguna, Apizaco, Tlaxcala, Mexico, from three different occupation periods: seven from the Late Formative (c. 600–400 BC), five from the Terminal Formative (c. 100 BC–AD 150), and one from the Epiclassic (AD 750–900). All of these individuals were obtained from domestic contexts and their occupations were devoted to a diversified production for household consumption (Carballo, ; Carballo et al, ). Considering that the purpose of this selection was to assess the potential use of TCA as an indicator of CA, in order to evaluate the degree of discordance with BA, the configuration of this assemblage was based on the access the author had on ancient skeletal material.…”

“…Each set of photographs was labeled with an unrelated name and number from the skeletal reference label and the CA, when known, was kept masked. The analysis of the specimens from La Laguna and Palenque was taken from previous research by the author (Carballo et al, ; Couoh, ), in which the same procedure was followed.…”

Cooperation, collective action, and the archeology of large‐scale societies

“…For instance, archeologists working in Mesoamerica note that limitations on the transportation of staple goods such as food in an environment lacking pack animals resulted in underdeveloped storage infrastructure, but may simultaneously have encouraged the development of markets as a system of distribution. Still, a Mesoamerican example of suprahousehold food storage that would fit the model proposed by Angourakis and colleagues was recently proposed by Carballo and collegues …”

“…Still, a Mesoamerican example of suprahousehold food storage that would fit the model proposed by Angourakis and colleagues was recently proposed by Carballo and collegues. 27 Forms of agricultural intensification that involved the coordinated labor of multiple households are the most archeologically conspicuous of these subsistence dilemmas because they involve irrigation, terracing, and other means of landscape modification. Irrigation has, for centuries, been a major explanation for the emergence of larger populations seen in the archeological record of various world regions, particularly arid ones.…”

Houses of Style: Consumption, Adornment, and Identity in Formative Tlaxcalan Households

“…The Eastern Plaza (Area I) is a central area that served a mix of residential and ceremonial functions, with more evidence of residential activities during the early occupation and of community-level activities during the later occupation. Samples were obtained from early pits in tepetate and the features and living surface of one extensively excavated structure (Structure 12M-3) that dates to the second occupation and was associated with supra-household food storage and preparation (Carballo et al 2014a).…”