Gheo-Shih: An Archaic Macroband Camp in the Valley of Oaxaca

Gheo-Shih, an Archaic site in the Valley of Oaxaca, was a 1.5 hectare open-air macroband camp near the Mitla River. It was repeatedly occupied in the summer rainy season during the period (cal.) 7500–4000 BC, possibly by 25–50 people. At other times of the year the local population dispersed in smaller, family-sized groups, occupying microband camps in caves and rockshelters. The available macrofossil and palynological data suggest that between 5000 and 4000 BC, the inhabitants were cultivating maize, squash, gourds, and (possibly) runner beans, while continuing to collect wild plants and hunt deer, rabbit, and mud turtle.

This site report describes the discovery of Gheo-Shih and the subsequent research carried out there: a systematic surface pickup, a series of test pits, targeted excavations, and analysis of the materials recovered.

Zapotec Monuments and Political History

Joyce Marcus

M 61

Joyce Marcus, curator of Latin American Archaeology at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology and Robert L. Carneiro Distinguished University Professor of Social Evolution, excavated in Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca for decades. Here she draws on her own work and that of other scholars to create an encyclopedic, lavishly illustrated work on the origins and use of Zapotec writing.

Cueva Blanca: Social Change in the Archaic of the Valley of Oaxaca

Kent V. Flannery and Frank Hole

M 60

Archaeologists Flannery and Hole excavated a series of Archaic sites in the Valley of Oaxaca, including Cueva Blanca, as part of a project on the prehistory and human ecology of this region of Mexico. This cave yielded artifacts from the Late Pleistocene through the Early Archaic to the Late Archaic.

Excavations at San José Mogote 2: The Cognitive Archaeology

Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus

M 58

San José Mogote is a 60-70 ha Formative site in the northern Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, which was occupied for a thousand years before the city of Monte Albán was founded. Filling 432 pages and utilizing more than 400 photographs and line drawings, this book describes in detail more than 35 public buildings, including men’s houses, one-room temples, a performance platform, two-room state temples, a ballcourt, and two types of palaces.

Excavations at San José Mogote 1: The Household Archaeology

Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, with a multidimensional scaling of houses by Robert G. Reynolds

M 40

San José Mogote, an early village and chiefly center in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, was excavated over a fifteen-year period. This volume reports in detail on every Early and Middle Formative house recovered, including a complete inventory of artifacts, features, plants, animal bones, and craft raw materials by house, with extensive piece-plotting of items on house floors and dooryards.

Early Formative Pottery of the Valley of Oaxaca

Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, with a technical ceramic analysis by William O. Payne

M 27

Using more than 300 illustrations, the authors present an encyclopedic analysis of the many types of pottery found in the Oaxaca Valley in the Early Formative period. From details of sherd profiles and tempers to discussions of the growth of various villages, this volume is an exhaustively thorough treatment of the topic and represents decades of archaeological fieldwork in the region.

Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Stephen Kowalewski, Gary Feinman, Laura Finsten, Richard Blanton and Linda Nicholas

M 23

This two-volume monograph is the final report and synthesis of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project’s full-coverage surface survey and makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the investigation of social evolution, cultural ecology, and regional analysis.

Agricultural Intensification and Prehistoric Health in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Denise C. Hodges

M 22

Author Denise C. Hodges examines the osteological remains from 14 archaeological sites in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, in an attempt to address the relationship between the intensification of agriculture and the health status of the prehistoric population. Volume 9 of the subseries Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca.

Chipped Stone Tools in Formative Oaxaca, Mexico: Their Procurement, Production and Use

William J. Parry

M 20

Chipped stone tools from archaeological sites can be a source of social and economic information about the inhabitants. In this volume, author William J. Parry presents his analysis of chipped stone tools found at Early and Middle Formative sites in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Volume 8 of the subseries Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca.

Irrigation and the Cuicatec Ecosystem: A Study of Agriculture and Civilization in North Central Oaxaca

Joseph W. Hopkins III

M 17

In this volume, Joseph W. Hopkins III reconstructs the history of the Cuicatec region in Oaxaca, Mexico, from the Aztec empire through the Spanish conquest and into the twentieth century. Hopkins also discusses the archaeology of the region with a particular focus on irrigation systems and agriculture. From 1968 to 1970, Hopkins conducted an archaeological survey and limited excavation in this region, and he presents the results of that fieldwork here.

A Fuego y Sangre: Early Zapotec Imperialism in the Cuicatlán Cañada, Oaxaca

Elsa M. Redmond

M 16

In this volume, Elsa M. Redmond reconstructs the history of the Cuicatec region in Oaxaca, Mexico, from the Middle Formative period through the Lomas phase, when the Zapotec state based at Monte Albán took control, into the Trujano phase and the Spanish conquest. Redmond integrates archaeological data and sixteenth-century ethnohistoric records to inform her study of the political and social strategies of the Cuicatec region during these time periods. From 1977 to 1978, Redmond conducted an archaeological survey in this region, and she presents the results of that fieldwork here.

Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part I: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Central and Southern Parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Richard E. Blanton, Stephen Kowalewski, Gary Feinman, and Jill Appel

M 15

In this work, the authors interpret archaeological data on roughly 3000 years of human history in the Valley of Oaxaca, from roughly 1500 BC to AD 1500. They integrate information on settlement patterns, political and social organization, artifact distribution, and more.

The Vegetational History of the Oaxaca Valley and Zapotec Plant Knowedge

C. Earle Smith and Ellen Messer

M 10

In Part I of this volume, C. Earle Smith draws on years of survey in the Oaxaca Valley and archaeological discoveries of plant remains in the region to create a portrait of the valley’s original wild vegetation, previous to human settlement. In Part 2, Ellen Messer provides the results of her ethnobotanical study of the Zapotec residents of Mitla, a town in the southern highlands of the Valley of Oaxaca. Over the course of four years, she studied with local residents to learn the names and uses for wild plants and agricultural plants in the area.

Fabrica San Jose and Middle Formative Society in the Valley of Oaxaca

Robert D. Drennan

M 8

In the early 1970s, Robert D. Drennan excavated the Middle Formative archaeological site Fábrica San José in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. In this volume he presents the results of the excavations and provides a chronology of Middle Formative ceramics. Appendix on carbonized plant remains by Richard I. Ford.

Formative Mesoamerican Exchange Networks with Special Reference to the Valley of Oaxaca

Jane W. Pires-Ferreira

M 7

For this volume, archaeologist Jane W. Pires-Ferreira analyzed artifacts from the Valley of Oaxaca in order to understand more about prehistoric trade patterns in the region. Using her analyses, she was able to describe obsidian exchange networks, iron ore mirror exchange networks, and shell exchange networks in Early and Middle Formative Mesoamerica.

Sociopolitical Aspects of Canal Irrigation in the Valley of Oaxaca

Susan H. Lees

M 6

In order to study canal irrigation in the Valley of Oaxaca, archaeologist Susan H. Lees visited more than 20 villages in the region. She interviewed residents and photographed local water systems. In this volume, Lees analyzes the relationship between water control and local and state government; compares Oaxacan irrigation with that in other regions; and assesses the role of organized labor in the establishment and maintenance of an irrigation system.

The Use of Land and Water Resources in the Past and Present Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Anne V. T. Kirby

M 5

In the first volume of a series on Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca, Anne V. T. Kirkby investigated the agricultural production in the valley. With land-use data gathered at the time of her study (the 1960s), she created population and distribution models to help archaeologists interpret prehistoric settlement patterns in the region.