Intensive Ceramic Production and Classic-Period Political Economy in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

Matacapan, a Classic-period center in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, is known for its strong stylistic affinities with Teotihuacan. The Comoapan complex is a ceramic-production area situated along the southern edge of Matacapan. Data from Comoapan indicate that pottery manufacture was large scale and intensive, with final products distributed outside of Matacapan and possibly beyond the Tuxtlas. These data suggest that models of Tuxtlas political economy emphasizing long-term Teotihuacan administration should be reconsidered. More reasonable is a perspective that views the Tuxtlas as a source of high-quality prestige goods whose distribution is administered by local elite.

Exchange of Coarse Orange pottery in the Middle Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico

“…2) tempered with fine volcanic ash were the most intensively manufactured pottery at Matacapan (Arnold et al, 1993;Pool, 1990;Santley et al, 1989). These were well-made utilitarian pots often slipped and painted with geometric designs with at least one example of use as a funerary urn (Fig.…”

“…1) has documented one of the largest, most intensive pottery production complexes known in ancient Mesoamerica (Arnold et al, 1993;Pool, 1990;Santley et al, 1989;Stoner, 2002;cf. Feinman, 1999;Balkansky et al, 1997). However, the role of this production within the regional economy is unclear.…”

Modeling and testing polity boundaries in the Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico

“…In fact, the data currently available for production and exchange suggest that Totocapan may have been primarily a consumer of goods produced elsewhere in the region (Stoner, 2011, Chapter 9). Coarse Orange jars were produced at large and intensive workshops at the southern edge of Matacapan (Comoapan and Area 199) (Arnold et al, 1993;Santley et al, 1989;Pool, 1990). Compositional analyses of these jars indicate that Matacapan exchanged them, or their contents, to their own hinterland (Stoner, 2003).…”

“…Political economic models previously presented for the Classic ( Table 1) Tuxtla region of Mesoamerica have been based largely on archaeological excavation and survey at Matacapan and settlements within the Catemaco Valley (Arnold et al, 1993;Pool, 1990;Pool and Santley, 1992;Santley, 1994Santley, , 2007Santley et al, 1989;Stoner et al, 2008) (Fig. 1).…”

New World States and Empires: Economic and Social Organization

“…Other craft industries receiving considerable attention in both regions are ceramics (Arnold et al, 1993;Balkansky et al, 1997;Costin and Hagstrum, 1995;Druc, 1998;Foias and Bishop, 1997;Hernández Reyes et al, 1999;Reents-Budet et al, 2000;Shimada, 1994), shell (Feinman and Nicholas, 1993;Owen, 2001;Velázquez Castro, 1999), and rubber (Filloy Nadal, 2001;Hosler et al, 1999).…”