Residential terrace excavations at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico. (News & Notes).

Feinman, Gary M. ; Nicholas, Linda M.

In ancient Mesoamerica, the Valley of Oaxaca was a key nexus of demographic and political power throughout the prehispanic sequence. For archaeologists, this region also is the heartland of the Early Mesoamerican Village (Flannery 1976). Yet relatively little is known about the domestic economy and everyday life in this region following the Formative period (1500 BC-AD 100) treated in Flannery's important work.

During the Classic period (AD 200-700) in ancient Oaxaca, hilltop settlements composed of terraces were a principal community form. Yet despite the location and mapping of scores of these foothill and mountain sites (over 100 in the Valley of Oaxaca alone) (Kowalewski et al. 1989), some sceptics doubted whether the terraced communities were residential and if these sites were indeed the focus of long-lived population concentrations.

In 1999 we began excavations at El Palmillo, a large hilltop site with over 1400 terraces in the dry, eastern part of the valley (FIGURE 1). Our goals were to determine if the terraces were residential and, if so, to gain a picture of Classic period domestic life.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

With the completion of three field seasons, we have excavated five terraces -- four adjacent terraces near the base of the hill, and one terrace higher up the slope. We found domestic architecture on all five terraces; residential complexes filled most of the flat space on the terraces, leaving little area for agriculture. The residential complexes generally consisted of several rooms enclosing three sides of a small central patio situated at the front of the terrace (FIGURE 2). Burials and offerings were often placed in the central patios and under house floors.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The terraces reflect continuous use by a domestic unit. After initial construction, terraces appear to have undergone a cycle of renovations. During major remodelling episodes, terrace walls were raised, and new surfaces were built up through multiple filling events. At times, these fill layers consisted of more than half a metre of almost sterile sediments. The residential structures were rebuilt as well, either superimposed atop earlier structures or moved slightly further upslope. Some of the residential complexes retained a similar layout throughout several rebuilding episodes.

This cycle of terrace construction and remodelling endured for at least 400-500 years. If the excavated terraces are representative, then El Palmillo had an important residential occupation for centuries, minimally between AD 250 and 650. In spite of its location on a high rocky hill in the mountains at the eastern edge of the valley, the site was clearly more than a defensive redoubt.

Given the site's precarious location in the driest part of valley, where corn harvests are not always successful, another important question is how the prehispanic population supported itself. According to early Spanish accounts, corn was not a major part of the diet for the residents of the eastern part of the valley (Horcasitas & George 1955). What does grow in abundance at the site is a variety of xerophytic plants, including maguey, yucca and nopal. Maguey was especially important, as it provides food, liquid and fibre. During the excavations on the lower set of terraces, we uncovered two large ovens for roasting maguey.

Craft production was an important part of the domestic livelihood at El Palmillo. The site's residents used abundant local chert outcrops to make a variety of stone tools, most notably scrapers that were used to process maguey. Given the abundance of indicators for both chipped stone tool and maguey fibre/textile production, it seems likely that these local products were exchanged for some of the non-local goods present at the site. The evidence for craft activities on all the excavated terraces at El Palmillo strengthens our hypothesis that the principal practice of prehispanic Mesoamerican economic activities was enacted by households in domestic contexts.

References

FLANNERY, K. V. (ed.). 1976. The early Mesoamerican village. New York (NY): Academic Press.

HORCASITAS, F. & R. GEORGE. 1955. The relacion de Tlacolula y Mitla, Mesoamerican Notes 4: 13-24.

KOWALEWSKI, S.A., G.M. FEINMAN, R.E. BLANTON, L. FINSTEN & L.M. NICHOLAS. 1989. Monte Alban's hinterland, part II: The prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Memoir 23.

GARY M. FEINMAN & LINDA M. NICHOLAS *

* Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Drive, Chicago IL 60605-2496, USA.