Settlement and Subsistence in Early Formative Soconusco

. Ed(s): Lesure, Richard G.

ISBN 10: 193174579X / ISBN 13: 9781931745796

Published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 2010

About this Item

Sets archaeological excavations at a special-propose estuary site in coastal Chiapas, Mexico, into the larger anthropological context of the origins of agriculture and sedentary life in ancient Mesoamerica. Editor(s): Lesure, Richard G. Series: Monographs. Num Pages: 311 pages, , black & white illustrations, black & white tables, figures. BIC Classification: HDDA. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 279 x 216 x 18. Weight in Grams: 1043. . 2010. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781931745796

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Settlement and Subsistence in Early Formative Soconusco
• Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 193174579X
• ISBN 13: 9781931745796
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The Soconusco region, a narrow strip of the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala, is the location of some of the earliest pottery-using villages of ancient Mesoamerica. Mobile early inhabitants of the area harvested marsh clams in the estuaries, leaving behind vast mounds of shell. With the introduction of pottery and the establishment of permanent villages (from 1900 B.C.), use of the resource-rich estuary changed. The archaeological manifestation of that new estuary adaptation is a dramatic pattern of inter-site variability in pottery vessel forms. Vessels at sites within the estuary were about seventy percent neckless jars -- "tecomates" -- while vessels at contemporaneous sites a few kilometers inland were seventy percent open dishes. The pattern is well-known, but the the settlement arrangements or subsistence practices that produced it have remained unclear. Archaeological investigations at El Varal, a special-purpose estuary site of the later Early Formative (1250-1000 B.C.) expand possibilities for an anthropological understanding of the archaeological patterns. The goal of this volume is to describe excavations and finds at the site and to propose, based on a variety of analyses, a new understanding of Early Formative assemblage variability.

About the Author

Richard Lesure is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.