As part of a long-term project examining the Classic/Postclassic (AD 200-1520) domestic economy in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, we have completed intensive mapping and surface survey at three large, hilltop terrace sites in eastern Tlacolula: Guirún (Saville 1900; 1909), El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress (Holmes 1897). Earlier surveys (Kowalewski et al. 1989) indicated that all three sites were craft production centres (stone working) and had extensive Classic and Postclassic occupations (Feinman & Nicholas 1996).
Beginning in 1996, we undertook terrace-by-terrace surveys of each site (Feinman & Nicholas 1997; 1998a; 1998b). All three were found to have more terraces than we previously thought: 330 residential terraces at Guirún, 1453 at El Palmillo and 463 at the Mitla Fortress. Guirún is spread over a series of high piedmont ridges, with public architecture on almost every flat ridgetop and discrete groups of terraces on the descending slopes.
In contrast, El Palmillo and the fortress were more compact, with public architecture concentrated at the apex of each site and terraces descending the lower slopes. The El Palmillo occupation was especially dense, with row upon row of terraces crammed on the main, west face of the site.
The Mitla Fortress had long been known for its huge defensive walls; the recent fieldwork revealed that the other sites also were extremely well defended.
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Figure 1: Terraced slopes of Guirún in eastern Tlacolula.
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Figure 2: Massive stone walls at the Mitla Fortress.
We mapped more than 50 defensive walls at Guirún and well over 100 at El Palmillo and the fortress. A series of walls guarded the most gradual approaches to all three sites. At El Palmillo and the fortress narrow roads and accessways cut through both systems of walls and strings of terraces. Generally, these paths were flanked by small structures and platforms that could have monitored movement in and out of the site (e.g. Hirth 1982: 323).
The intensive surveys provide a broad picture of the different economic specializations (especially stone working and plant processing) practised at each settlement. Stone tool processing and utilization were more evident at these three sites than in most other parts of the valley (Kowalewski et al. 1989; Robles 1994; Whalen 1986; Williams & Heizer 1965).
Distinctive scraping tools, raspadores (Hester & Heizer 1972; Parsons & Parsons 1990), are present at all three sites. These tools likely were used to process plants for fibre (e.g. Evans 1990), which has been long proposed for the eastern Valley of Oaxaca (Hester & Heizer 1972; Messer 1978: 7780). We suspect that a variety of xerophytic plants found on the sites today, including maguey and a palm-like plant, Yucca periculosa, were cultivated by the inhabitants of the ancient sites.
The more detailed information on site layout and economic activities collected by intensive survey cannot be obtained during more extensive regional surveys. The new work also is valuable for selecting representative samples of well-preserved terraces for excavation (which began in 1999 at El Palmillo), and for providing a more precise context into which future excavation findings can be placed.
References
- EVANS, S.T. 1990. The productivity of maguey terrace agriculture in Central Mexico during the Aztec Period. Latin American Antiquity 1: 11732.
- FEINMAN, G.M. & L.M. NICHOLAS. 1996. Defining the eastern limits of the Monte Albán state: systematic settlement pattern survey in the Guirún Area, Oaxaca, Mexico. Mexicon 18: 917.
- 1997. El mapa de Guirún: producción doméstica en la frontera del estado zapoteco prehispánico. Final field report of the 1996 season prepared for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
- 1998a. El mapeo y estudio intensivo de la superficie de El Palmillo (Matatlán, Oaxaca, México). Final field report of the 1997 season prepared for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
- 1998b. El mapeo de la Fortaleza de Mitla (Oaxaca, México). Final field report of the 1998 season prepared for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
- HESTER, T.R. & R.F. HEIZER. 1972. Problems in the functional interpretation of artifacts: scraper planes from Mitla and Yagul, Oaxaca. University of California Archaeological Research Facility 14: 10723.
- HIRTH, K.G. 1982. Transportation architecture at Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico. Current Anthropology 23: 3224.
- HOLMES, W.H. 1897. Archaeological studies among the ancient cities of Mexico: Part II, Monuments of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the Valley of Mexico. Chicago (IL): Field Columbian Museum. Anthropological series 1(1).
- KOWALEWSKI, S.A., G.M. FEINMAN, R.E. BLANTON, L. FINSTEN & L.M. NICHOLAS. 1989. Monte Albán's hinterland, Part II: The Prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Memoir 23.
- MESSER, E. 1978. Zapotec plant knowledge: classification, uses, and communication 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: tecnología para la arquitectura monumental. Nashville (TN): Vanderbilt University. Publications in Anthropology 47.
- SAVILLE, M.H. 1900. Cruciform structures near Mitla, American Museum of Natural History Bulletin 13: 20118.
- 1909. The cruciform structures of Mitla and vicinity, in Anthropological essays presented to Frederic Ward Putnam in honor of his seventieth birthday: 15190. New York (NY): G.E. Stechert.
- WHALEN, M.E. 1986. Sources of the Guilá Naquitz chipped stone, in K.V. Flannery (ed.) Guilá Naquitz: archaic foraging and early agriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico: 14156. Orlando (FL): Academic Press.
- WILLIAMS, H. & R.F. HEIZER. 1965. Geological notes on the ruins of Mitla and other Oaxacan Sites, Mexico. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 1: 4054.