Intensive survey of hilltop terrace sites in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Intensive survey of hilltop terrace sites in Oaxaca, Mexico. As part of a long-term project examining the Classic-Postclassic(AD 200-1520) domestic economy in the Valley of Oaxaca The Valley of Oaxaca is a geographic region located within the modern day State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The valley, which is located within the Sierra Madre Mountains, is shaped like a distorted and almost upside-down “Y,” with each of its arms bearing specific , Mexico, we havecompleted intensive mapping and surface survey at three large, hilltopterrace sites in eastern Tlacolula: Guirun (Saville 1900; 1909), ElPalmillo El Palmillo is a Mesoamerican Classic Period archaeological site located in the Valley of Oaxaca, associated with the pre-Columbian Zapotec civilization which was centered in the valley and the surrounding highlands of the present-day state of Oaxaca, Mexico. and the Mitla Fortress (Holmes 1897). Earlier surveys(Kowalewski et al. 1989) indicated that all three sites were craftproduction centres (stone working) and had extensive Classic andPostclassic occupations (Feinman & Nicholas 1996). Beginning in 1996, we undertook terrace-by-terrace surveys of eachsite (Feinman & Nicholas 1997; 1998a; 1998b). All three were foundto have more terraces than we previously thought: 330 residentialterraces at Guirun, 1453 at El Palmillo and 463 at the Mitla Fortress.Guirun is spread over a series of high piedmont ridges, with publicarchitecture on almost every flat ridgetop and discrete groups ofterraces on the descending slopes (FIGURE 1). In contrast, El Palmilloand the fortress were more compact, with public architectureconcentrated at the apex of each site and terraces descending the lowerslopes. The El Palmillo occupation was especially dense, with row uponrow of terraces crammed on the main, west face of the site. [FIGURE 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Mitla Fortress had long been known for its huge defensive walls(FIGURE 2); the recent fieldwork revealed that the other sites also wereextremely well defended. We mapped more than 50 defensive walls atGuirun and well over 100 at El Palmillo and the fortress. A series ofwalls guarded the most gradual approaches to all three sites. At ElPalmillo and the fortress narrow roads and accessways cut through bothsystems of walls and strings of terraces. Generally, these paths wereflanked by small structures and platforms that could have monitoredmovement in and out of the site (e.g. Hirth 1982: 323). [FIGURE 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The intensive surveys provide a broad picture of the differenteconomic specializations (especially stone working and plant processing)practised at each settlement. Stone tool processing and utilization weremore evident at these three sites than in most other parts of the valley(Kowalewski et al. 1989; Robles 1994; Whalen 1986; Williams & Heizer1965). Distinctive scraping tools, raspadores (Hester & Heizer 1972;Parsons & Parsons 1990), are present at all three sites. These toolslikely were used to process plants for fibre (e.g. Evans 1990), whichhas been long proposed for the eastern Valley of Oaxaca (Hester &Heizer 1972; Messer 1978: 77-80). We suspect that a variety ofxerophytic plants found on the sites today, including maguey maguey:see amaryllis. and apalm-like plant, Yucca periculosa, were cultivated by the inhabitants ofthe ancient sites. The more detailed information on site layout and economicactivities collected by intensive survey cannot be obtained during moreextensive regional surveys. The new work also is valuable for selectingrepresentative samples of well-preserved terraces for excavation (whichbegan in 1999 at El Palmillo), and for providing a more precise contextinto which future excavation findings can be placed. References EVANS, S.T. 1990. The productivity of maguey terrace agriculture inCentral Mexico during the Aztec Period, Latin American Antiquity 1:117-32. FEINMAN, G.M. & L.M. NICHOLAS. 1996. Defining the easternlimits of the Monte Alban state: systematic settlement pattern survey inthe Guirun Area, Oaxaca, Mexico, Mexicon 18: 91-7. 1997. El mapa deGuirun: produccion domestica en la frontera del estado zapotecoprehispanico. Final field report of the 1996 season prepared for theInstituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico. 1998a. El mapeo yestudio intensivo de la superficie de El Palmillo (Matatlan, Oaxaca,Mexico). Final field report of the 1997 season prepared for theInstituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico. 1998b. Elmapeo de la Fortaleza de Mitla (Oaxaca, Mexico). Final field report ofthe 1998 season prepared for the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia eHistoria, Mexico. HESTER, T.R. & R.F. HEIZER. 1972. Problems in the functionalinterpretation of artifacts: scraper planes from Mitla and Yagul Oaxaca,University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). Archaeological Research Facility 14: 107-23. HIRTH, K.G. 1982. Transportation architecture at Xochicalco,Morelos, Mexico, Current Anthropology 23: 322-4. HOLMES, W.H. 1897. Archaeological studies among the ancient citiesof Mexico: Part II, Monuments of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the Valley ofMexico The Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a center for several pre-Columbian civilizations, . Chicago (IL): Field Columbian Museum. Anthropological series1(1). KOWALEWSKI, S.A., G.M. FEINMAN, R.E. BLANTON, L. FINSTEN & L.M.NICHOLAS. 1989. Monte Alban's hinterland, Part II: The Prehispanicsettlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley ofOaxaca, Mexico. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University ofMichigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. . Memoir 23. MESSER, E. 1978. Zapotec plant knowledge: classification, uses, andcommunication about plants in Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Ann Arbor (MI):Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Memoir 10(2). ROBLES G., N.M. 1994. Las canteras de Mitla, Oaxaca: tecnologiapara la arquitectura monumental. Nashville (TN): Vanderbilt University.Publications in Anthropology 47. SAVILLE, M.H. 1900. Cruciform cruciform/cru��ci��form/ (kroo��si-form) cross-shaped. cruciformcross-shaped. structures near Mitla, AmericanMuseum of Natural History Bulletin 13: 201-18. 1909. The cruciformstructures of Mitla and vicinity, in Anthropological essays presented toFrederic Ward Putnam Frederic Ward Putnam (b. 16 April 1839 - Salem, Massachusetts – d. 14 August 1915, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American naturalist and anthropologist.He had little education, but became the student of Louis Agassiz at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard in honor of his seventieth birthday: 151-90. NewYork New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (NY): G.E. Stechert. WHALEN, M.E. 1986. Sources of the Guila Naquitz chipped stone, inK.V. Flattery (ed.), Guile Naquitz: archaic foraging and earlyagriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico: 141-56. Orlando (FL): Academic Press. WILLIAMS, H. & R.F. HEIZER. 1965. Geological notes on the ruinsof Mitla and other Oaxacan Sites, Mexico, Contributions of theUniversity of California Archaeological Research Facility 1: 40-54. GARY M. FEINMAN & LINDA M. NICHOLAS, Department ofAnthropology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive Lake Shore Drive (colloquially referred to as LSD or simply Lake Shore) is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and next to Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. , Chicago IL60605-2496, USA.