The proposed research will investigate ceramic production and distribution in Formative Period Mexico through archaeological excavation in the area of the town of Tepeaca, Mexico, and the chemical analysis of pottery at Smithsonian Institution facilities in Washington, D.C., and Gaithersburg, Maryland. By the time of first contact with Europeans early in the 16th century, the highlands of Mexico had given rise to one of the most complex civilizations in the world at that time. Two aspects of this complexity were a tremendous degree of occupational specialization and a complex market system that tied together the communities of the highlands in a large network of trade. Although not very well understood at the present time, the roots of this socioeconomic system lie thousands of years earlier in the Formative Period (2000 BC to AD 300). Because of its location in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Basin, a region known to be important economically and politically from prehispanic times up to the present day, the Tepeaca area is perhaps an ideal place to gain insight into the growth and development of the prehispanic economy. The project has two components. The first consists of fieldwork to be conducted in Mexico involving principally the excavation of a Terminal Formative Period (150 BC to AD 200) ceramic production center. The site was discovered originally by the Acatzingo-Tepeaca Project in 1996, and then more intensively studied by the Tepeaca Kiln Project during the summer of 2003. In eroded areas of the site have been found the remains of seven kilns and high densities of ceramics. The finding of such an early pottery manufacturing location is rare in Mesoamerican archaeology and the data will be used to address issues surrounding the development of ceramic firing methods/technology and craft specialization. The second component of the proposed study consists of laboratory work at the National Museum of Natural History (D.C.) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Maryland) involving the instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and a production standardization study of potsherds collected throughout the Tepeaca area. Much of this material will come from samples currently being curated by the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) of Mexico. Using the spatial analysis of chemical compositional groups, Formative Period trade in pottery will be characterized through the evaluation of three alternate hypotheses: (1) no significant exchange, (2) diffuse exchange, and (3) centralized exchange. The ultimate origin of market economics in ancient Mexico has been debated for decades. The intellectual merit of this research lies in evaluating alternate models of trade in testing the hypothesis that an early regional market system was operating in the Tepeaca area early in the first millennium AD. Furthermore, this research will make extensive use of public facilities to add significantly to a growing body of work focusing on chemical compositional studies and ceramic production and trade at the intraregional and settlement level. In terms of the project's broader impacts, studying the development of market systems and occupational specialization in prehispanic Mexico will increase our understanding not only of the evolution of Mesoamerican society, but also of the development of important components of the modern world economic system. The field and laboratory work involves close collaboration with other scientists of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as the cooperation and assistance of archaeologists of INAH. The project will also provide education and training opportunities for archaeology students of the United States and Mexico.
