Recent Research in the Southern Highlands and Pacific Coast of Mesoamerica

Abstract

Recent research on the southern highlands and Pacific Coast of Mesoamerica has investigated topics of interest to all archaeologaists. Although best known for studies on the development of early social complexity, research in the region also has addressed hunter/gatherer subsistence patterns, early sedentism, the origins of food production, the development of the state, migration, the construction of social identity, political economy, and the collapse of complex societies. Research has accelerated in the past ten years, fueled by efforts of scholars from a number of disciplines. Recent paleo-ecological studies have provided much needed data for understanding human social action against the backdrop of the natural environment, while the region also has been the scene for testing numerous innovative theories of social change. Studies of identity and its manifestation in material culture have been especially productive.

Is it agriculture yet? Intensified maize-use at 1000 cal BC in the Soconusco and Mesoamerica

“…After 1000 cal BC in the Soconusco, the La Blanca polity coalesced in the southeastern end of the region (Fig. 1), and the surrounding Mazatán and Rio Jesus zones were abandoned as virtually all of the local population was drawn to this newly established society (Blake and Clark, 1999;Love, 1999bLove, , 2002Love, , 2007Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2010Rosenswig, , 2012a. At the apex of a multi-tiered settlement hierarchy, the site of La Blanca covered 300 ha and was built around a 25 m high central mound (Love, 2002;Guernsey, 2007, 2011).…”

“…Population levels in multiple regions clearly increased, and large conical pyramid mounds were constructed for the first time (e.g., Diehl, 1981;Inomata et al, 2013;Love, 1999a: 144-148). Numerous authors working in both the lowland Soconusco and Gulf Coast regions argue that an increased level of maize production also began at this time (Arnold, 2000(Arnold, , 2009Blake, 2006: 67;Blake et al, 1995: 179-180;Blake et al, 1992a;Blake and Neff, 2011;Cyphers and Zurita-Noguera, 2012;Clark and Pye, 2000;Clark et al, , 2010Clark and Knoll, 2005: 289;Killion, 2008Killion, , 2013Love, 1999bLove, , 2007Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2006aRosenswig, , 2012aVanDerwarker, 2006;VanDerwarker and Kruger, 2012). This was also when new forms of social differentiation were documented at the household level in the Soconusco (Love, 1991;Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2012a,b and see Lesure and Blake, 2002).…”

Late Holocene volcanic activity and environmental change in Highland Guatemala

“…Although Zone 3 does not encompass a long time span, it represents important developments in terms of recording impacts or effects sustained as a consequence of the TBJ event. This zone also encompasses the severe drought that occurred in the Late Preclassic (Dahlin 1983;Love 2007;Medina-Elizalde et al 2016;Neff et al 2006b). To the degree that our age estimate for sharp agricultural decline represents regional drought, we see that date as a terminus ante quem and argue that the actual decline started earlier.…”

“…Here, we present results from analyses of a sediment core from Lake Amatitlán, located approximately 25 km south of present-day Guatemala City (Figure 1). This highland lake is uniquely suited for paleoenvironmental study in a region characterized by complex and dynamic cultural developments that began in the Terminal Pleistocene (Love 2007;Love and Kaplan 2011). Unlike the lowlands to the north, comparatively little environmental information is available from highland zones.…”

Early Formative Pottery Production, Mobility, and Exchange on the Pacific Coast of Southern Mexico

“…The Aztecs referred to this region as the Soconusco and for study purposes it is divided into three sub-regions or areas: a) Acapetahua, comprising the ChantutoPanzacola Lagoon system and the Encrucijada wildlife reserve in the northernmost section of the region (Voorhies 1989(Voorhies , 2004; b) Mazatán, next to the border between Mexico and Guatemala, which has been studied intensively (Blake et al 1995;Cheetham and Clark 2005;Blake 1989, 1994;Coe 1961;Coe and Flannery 1967;Lowe 1967Lowe , 1975Voorhies 1989Voorhies , 2004; and c) the Rio Naranjo Basin in Guatemala, where Love (2007), Coe (1961), and Coe and Flannery (1967) conducted investigations, as well as the Rio de Jesus drainage studied by Pye (1989) and Demarest (1989).…”