The Economy of Ancient Matacapan

Abstract

Abstract In 1979 I initiated a program of archaeological fieldwork in the Tuxtlas Mountains in southern Veracruz, Mexico. One of the working hypotheses guiding this research was that Matacapan, the principal archaeological site in the area, headed a political economy dominated by persons from the great central Mexican center of Teotihuacan. In this paper I present evidence characterizing the economy that Matacapan dominated during the Classic period. My conclusion is that there was significant variation in system organization through time. Findings from the Tuxtlas indicate that the Early Classic regional system was small scale and organized most likely as a bounded hierarchical economy. In contrast, a dendritic political economy developed in Middle Classic times, in which the production of ceramics and/or their contents for distribution beyond the local region was emphasized. The Late Classic system was smaller scale, with most production destined for local clienteles, but apparently it was more commercialized, resembling an interlocking central-place system in several respects.

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