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Excavations in house mounds at Mayapán III
Abstract
Excavations in the 1954 season were confined to a relatively thorough examination of Group A-3 and Str. Q-62 and to spot digging in nine other structures. The spot digging was done at likely places for encountering tombs and cists noted during the survey and surface examination of the areas. R. E. Smith, as in the past, examined the collection of sherds and furnished for them the data given in this report. Of the 8,622 sherds recovered, 7,067 (98.6 percent) are of Mayapán period, 81 (1.13 percent) are of Puuc wares, and 1,474, due to weathering, were unidentifiable. Among the Mayapán sherds those from effigy censers number 1,410 and Fine Orange, 31. The highest percentage of Puuc sherds appeared in Lot A-140 (tomb beneath passageway of Str. AA-37). When complete contents of a Lot are not given under the description of a structure, they will be found in the caption of the drawing of the construction. Surface material recovered during the survey of Squares Y, Z, and AA not mentioned in the text but shown in Figure 17.8 as follows: b. fragment of lime-stone metate, unusual in that it has legs and is grooved, Lot A-104; e. copper bell, Lot A-94; f. fiber beater, Lot A-92; f. stone plug, Lot A-96. At the close of the excavations all pits and trenches were filled, in conformance with agreement with the Mexican Government. Str. Q-62 was solidified under the direction of Gustav Strömsvik. © 2009 by the University Press of Colorado. All rights reserved.
... Mentions of Mazapan-style figurines are relatively rare among collections from central Mexico, but specimens have been recovered in, for example, Xaltocan (Brumfiel and Overholtzer 2009:309), Cholula (Noguera 1954:154-158), and Cacaxtla-Xochitécatl (Serra Puche 2010, consulted by Testard). Figurines are also located in the States of Veracruz (Drucker 1943), Yucatán (in Mayapan, see Ruppert and Smith 1954), and Oaxaca (Scott 1993). Haberland (1989) and Bruhns and Amaroli (2006) note their presence in Early Postclassic contexts from El Salvador ( Figure 2i). ...
A series of figurines, known in the archaeological literature as Mazapan-style, was recently discovered at the site of El Palacio, Michoacan, Mexico, in strata radiocarbon dated from the Early Postclassic ( a.d. 900–1200/1250). Considered diagnostic markers for Early Postclassic cultural and economic dynamics, these artifacts raise questions regarding the role of this settlement at both regional and interregional scales prior to the rise of the Tarascan state. We study the specimens found at El Palacio through a thorough examination of the archaeological contexts, technological and iconographic characteristics, and compare them to cases from the literature. By demonstrating their local production and their association with other artifacts or iconographic traits characteristic of the Early “Postclassic international style,” we bring new elements to the definition of these artifacts and underline the capacity of local elites to connect culturally and economically with other regions of Mesoamerica.
The complexity of the organization of craft production mirrors multiple aspects of the larger political economies of premodern states. At the late Maya urban center of Mayapán, variation in the social contexts of crafting within a single settlement defies simple classificatory models that once held sway in the literature of nonWestern state societies. Most surplus crafters were independent and affluent commoners; notable exceptions include artisans working under direct elite supervision or elites who were directly engaged in crafting. Although household workshops concentrated around the city’s epicenter, others were dispersed across the site in unassuming residential neighborhoods or near outlying monumental groups. We consider the significance of pronounced household and regional economic interdependencies founded on well-developed surplus crafting practices, imported raw materials, market exchange, and tribute obligations at Mayapán. As for other premodern states, craft production also gave rise to greater opportunities for wealth differentiation within the commoner class. Producers in this urban political capital contributed in significant ways to a stable political economy by supplying goods that were required at all levels of the social hierarchy.
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