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The Izapa Kingdom's Capital: Formative Period Settlement Patterns, Population, and Dating Low-Relief Stelae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2019

Robert M. Rosenswig
Robert M. Rosenswig*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The University at Albany – SUNY, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, New York, 12222USA
*
([email protected])
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Abstract

This article presents new settlement survey data from the Izapa center of southern Mesoamerica, a site long known for its corpus of low-relief stelae. These data, which track the changing distribution of population from 1000 BC–AD 100, indicate that the city's population peaked at 5,725 inhabitants. Izapa was the capital of a regional kingdom with more than 40 lower-order monumental centers and a territory that covered at least 450 sq. km. Recent AMS dates confirm the apogee of the kingdom at 300–100 BC, and volcanological reconstruction suggests that a Tacaná volcano eruption corresponds with archaeological evidence of political and demographic disruptions to the kingdom. Patterns at Izapa are contextualized in terms of Inomata and colleagues’ (2014) call for redating Kaminaljuyu, placing the erection of stelae there to after 100 BC, as well as Love's (2018) and Mendelsohn's (2018) responses in this journal. Izapa was an integrated kingdom from 700–100 BC, and “Izapa-style” sculptures were a novel medium of political communication introduced after the polity had been functioning without them for centuries. If Inomata and colleagues' (2014) proposal is correct that low-relief stelae were erected only after 100 BC at other centers in southern Mesoamerica, this was centuries after the practice was established at Izapa.

En este trabajo se presentan nuevos datos sobre el centro de Izapa, un sitio en el sur de Mesoamérica conocido por su conjunto de estelas en bajo relieve. Nuevos datos sobre el patrón de asentamiento muestran los cambios en la distribución demográfica entre 1000 aC y 100 dC e indican que la población de la ciudad llegó a alcanzar unos 5.725 habitantes. Izapa fue la capital de un reino regional con más de 40 centros monumentales de orden inferior y un territorio que cubría al menos 450 km2. Los fechados radiocarbónicos por AMS confirman el apogeo del reino entre 300 y 100 aC y la reconstrucción vulcanológica sugiere que una erupción del Volcán Tacaná se corresponde con la evidencia arqueológica de interrupciones políticas y demográficas en el reino. Los patrones en Izapa se contextualizan con base en la propuesta avanzada por Inomata y colaboradores (2014) de una nueva datación para Kaminaljuyú, con la erección de estelas después de 100 aC, así como las respuestas de Love (2018) y Mendelsohn (2018) publicadas en la edición actual de esta revista. Izapa fue un reino integrado entre 700 y 100 aC y las esculturas del “estilo Izapa” fueron un medio novedoso de comunicación política. Si es correcta la propuesta de Inomata y colaboradores (2014) que las estelas en bajo relieve fueron erigidas solo después del 100 aC en otros centros en el sur de Mesoamérica, esto ocurrió siglos después de que dicha práctica se estableciera en Izapa.

Keywords

Formative periodMesoamericalidarsettlement patternsurbanismperíodo FormativoMesoaméricalídarpatrones de asentamientourbanismo
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 91 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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