Hostname: page-component-669899f699-g7b4s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T20:03:53.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Development of an early city in Central Mexico: the Tlalancaleca Archaeological Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2017

Tatsuya Murakami ,
Shigeru Kabata ,
Julieta M. López J.  and
José Juan Chávez V.
Tatsuya Murakami*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, 6823 St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Shigeru Kabata
Affiliation:
Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Santa Catarina Mártir, Cholula, PueblaCP 72810, Mexico Institute of Latin-American Studies of Kyoto, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, 6 Kasame-cho, Saiin, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto615–8558, Japan
Julieta M. López J.
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de Posgrados, Edificio H, Número 105, 113 y 114, México D.F.CP 04510, Mexico
José Juan Chávez V.
Affiliation:
Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Periférico Sur y Zapote s/n, Colonia Isidro Fabela, Tlalpan, Isidro Fabela, México, D.F.CP 14030, Mexico
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: tmurakam@tulane.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The origins of the large Classic and Postclassic urban centres of Central Mexico remain poorly understood. Archaeological investigations at the Formative site of Tlalancaleca in Puebla (Mexico) provide the first detailed study of a large-scale urban centre of that period. Preliminary results suggest that the growth and development of this particular site may have influenced the subsequent growth of Teotihuacan itself. This study explores how urbanisation can be identified archaeologically by tracing the expansion of population and the emergence of monumental architecture.

Keywords

MesoamericaTlalancalecaTeotihuacanFormative Periodurbanisation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 356 , April 2017 , pp. 455 - 473
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Algaze, G. 2008. Ancient Mesopotamia at the dawn of civilization: the evolution of an urban landscape. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226013787.001.0001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnauld, M.C., Manzanilla, L.R. & Smith, M.E. (ed.). 2012. The neighborhood as a social and spatial unit in Mesoamerican cities. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Blanton, R.E., Kowalewski, S.A., Feinman, G.M. & Finsten, L.M.. 1993. Ancient Mesoamerica: a comparison of change in three regions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, D.M. 2009. Household and status in Formative Central Mexico: domestic structures, assemblages, and practices at La Laguna, Tlaxcala. Latin American Antiquity 20: 473–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, D.M. 2015. Urbanization and religion in ancient Central Mexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Charlton, T.H. & Nichols, D.L.. 1997. Diachronic studies of city-states: permutations on a theme—Central Mexico from 1700 B.C. to A.D. 1600, in Nichols, D.L. & Charlton, T.H. (ed.) The archaeology of city-states: cross-cultural approaches: 169–208. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G.L. 2000. The Central Mexican highlands from the rise of Teotihuacan to the decline of Tula, in Adams, R.E.W. & MacLeod, M.J. (ed.) The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas. Volume II: Mesoamerica, part 1: 250–317. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G.L. 2004. Origins and development of urbanism: archaeological perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 525–49. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093248 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowgill, G.L. 2015. Ancient Teotihuacan: early urbanism in Central Mexico. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Drennan, R.D. 1988. Household location and compact versus dispersed settlement in Prehispanic Mesoamerica, in Wilk, R.R. & Ashmore, W. (ed.) Household and community in the Mesoamerican past: 273–93. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Fash, W.L., Tokovinine, A. & Fash, B.W.. 2009. The House of New Fire at Teotihuacan and its legacy in Mesoamerica, in Fash, W.L. & Lopez Lujan, L. (ed.) The art of urbanism: how Mesoamerican kingdoms represented themselves in architecture and imagery: 201–29. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.Google Scholar
García Cook, A. 1973. El desarrollo cultural prehispánico en el norte del área, intento de una secuencia cultural. Comunicaciones. Proyecto Puebla-Tlaxcala 7: 67–71.Google Scholar
García Cook, A. 1981. The historical importance of Tlaxcala, in Bricker, V. & Sabloff, J.A. (ed.) Supplement to the handbook of Middle American Indians, volume 1: archaeology: 244–76. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
García Cook, A. 1984. Dos elementos arquitectónicos ‘tempranos’ en Tlalancaleca, Puebla. Cuadernos de Arquitectura Mesoamericana 2: 28–32.Google Scholar
García Cook, A. & Merino Carrión, B.L.. 2005. La cerámica del Formativo en Puebla-Tlaxcala, in Merino Carrión, B.L. & García Cook, A. (ed.) La producción alfarera en el México antiguo I: 575–685. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
García Cook, A. & Trejo, E.C.. 1977. Lo teotihuacano en Tlaxcala. Comunicaciones 14: 57–70.Google Scholar
Geodatum. n.d. Available at: http://www.geodatum.com.mx/ (accessed 5 December 2016).Google Scholar
Grove, D.C. 2000. The Preclassic societies of the central highlands of Mesoamerica, in Adams, R.E.W. & MacLeod, M.J. (ed.) The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas. Volume II: Mesoamerica, part 1: 122–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lesure, R.G. (ed.). 2014. Formative lifeways in central Tlaxcala, volume1: excavations, ceramics, and chronology. Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Lesure, R.G., Wake, T.A., Borejsza, A., Carballo, J., Carballo, D.M., Rodríguez López, I. & De Ángeles Guzmán, M.. 2013. Swidden agriculture, village longevity, and social relations in Formative central Tlaxcala: towards an understanding of macroregional structure. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32: 224–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2013.02.002 Google Scholar
Marcus, J. & Sabloff, J.A. (ed.). 2008. The ancient city: new perspectives on urbanism in the Old and New World. Santa Fe (NM): School for Advanced Research.Google Scholar
Mastache, A.G., Cobean, R.H., García Cook, A. & Hirth, K.G. (ed.). 2008. Urbanism in Mesoamerica, volumes 1 & 2. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; University Park: Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Montaño, H. 1998. Tlalancaleca, Puebla: un antecedente del apogeo cultural del altiplano central. Unpublished MA dissertation, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Google Scholar
Murakami, T. 2014. Social identities, power relations, and urban transformations: politics of plaza construction at Teotihuacan, in Tsukamoto, K. & Inomata, T. (ed.) Mesoamerican plazas: arenas of community and power: 34–49. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Murakami, T. In press. Tecnología persistente, relaciones sociales cambiantes: arquitectura urbana en Teotihuacan, in Memoria del XXXV Coloquio de Antropología e Historia Regionales ‘El Pasado tecnológico: Cambio y persistencia’. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán.Google Scholar
Plunket, P. & Uruñuela, G.. 1998. Preclassic household patterns preserved under volcanic ash at Tetimpa, Puebla, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 9: 287–309. https://doi.org/10.2307/3537029 Google Scholar
Plunket, P. & Uruñuela, G.. 2005. Recent research in Puebla prehistory. Journal of Archaeological Research 13: 89–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-005-2485-5 Google Scholar
Plunket, P. & Uruñuela, G.. 2006. Social and cultural consequences of a Late Holocene eruption of Popocatépetl in Central Mexico. Quaternary International 151: 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.012 Google Scholar
Plunket, P. & Uruñuela, G.. 2012. Where east meets west: the Formative in Mexico's central highlands. Journal of Archaeological Research 20: 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-011-9051-4 Google Scholar
Rattray, E.C. 2001. Teotihuacan: ceramics, chronology, and cultural trends. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Pittsburgh (PA): University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T. & Webster, D.. 1988. The Mesoamerican urban tradition. American Anthropologist 90: 521–46. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1988.90.3.02a00010 Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T., Parsons, J.R. & Santley, R.S.. 1979. The Basin of Mexico: ecological processes in the evolution of a civilization. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Serra Puche, M.C. & Lazcano Arce, J.C.. 2011. Vida cotidiana Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla: días, años, milenios. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Serra Puche, M.C., Lazcano Arce, J.C. & de la Torre Mendoza, M.. 2004. Cerámica de Xochitecatl. México, D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L. (ed.). 2003. The social construction of ancient cities. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Spencer, C.S. & Redmond, E.M.. 2004. Primary state formation in Mesoamerica. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 173–99. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143823 Google Scholar
Storey, G.R. (ed.). 2006. Urbanism in the preindustrial world: cross-cultural approaches. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, N. 2014. Animals and sacred mountains: how ritualized performances materialized state ideologies at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Tsukamoto, K. & Inomata, T. (ed.). 2014. Mesoamerican plazas: arenas of community and power. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Uruñuela, G. & Plunket, P.. 2007. Tradition and transformation: village ritual at Tetimpa as a template for early Teotihuacan, in Gonlin, N. & Lohse, J.C. (ed.) Commoner ritual and ideology in ancient Mesoamerica: 33–54. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar