The Teotepec Archaeological Project (TAP), supported by the National Science Foundation, will examine the politics of pre-Columbian ethnic identity along the south Mexican Gulf Coast during the Late Classic Period (ca. AD 600-1000). A collaborative team of US and Mexican scholars, directed by Drs. Philip Arnold and Amber VanDerwarker, will undertake two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at the site of Teotepec, located in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. TAP fieldwork and analysis will assess the impact of newly immigrated populations on indigenous cultural activities and expressions. This research offers an opportunity to investigate and evaluate the social and political strategies employed by recently arrived outsiders as they situate and empower themselves within a new cultural milieu.
Across ancient Mexico, the Late Classic Period was a time of transition and turmoil. Large-scale polities crumbled and populations relocated in the face of heightened conflict among smaller petty chiefdoms. The south Mexican Gulf Coast afforded a crucial nexus of highland and lowland interaction and received many of these disenfranchised groups. Local coastal populations were forced to absorb and contend with these immigrants, resulting in a renegotiated social, political, and economic landscape.
Evaluating these processes requires systematic, longitudinal data on cultural transformations. Research undertake by TAP is designed to obtain these data using a combination of artifact recovery and remote sensing technologies. TAP activities will advance along two major fronts: a) document changes in the residential economies of Teotepec's Late Classic inhabitants; and b) identify alterations to Teotepec's built environment during this same period. Data collection will involve multiple, complementary strategies: a) topographic mapping of the site; b) controlled surface artifact collection; c) near-surface geophysical mapping in the form of electromagnetic conductivity and ground penetrating radar; d) truthing these patterns through targeted excavations; and e) physico-chemical analyses of select artifacts to differentiate local from foreign provenience.
Benefits of the TAP accrue in two ways. First, this research will generate timely, relevant data on the manner in which immigrant peoples affect, and are affected by, the cultural prescriptions of the host population. By identifying this sequence of assimilation social scientists are better able to model these processes in other contexts and time periods. Second, this research offers significant collaborative opportunities for US and Mexican scholars. Moreover, through hands-on training the TAP research will contribute to undergraduate and graduate student education in both Mexico and the US. Research findings will be available for theses and dissertation projects and analyses will be published through peer-reviewed outlets. Ultimately, the TAP will generate important new insight into one of the most significant, yet poorly understood social dynamics in ancient Mexico.
