Ceramic Microtypology and the Territorial Expansion of the Early Monte Albán State in Oaxaca, Mexico

Ceramic Microtypology and theTerritorial Expansion of theEarly Monte Alban State inOaxaca Mexico

Charles S Spencer

Elsa M Redmond

Christina M ElsonAmerican Museum of Natural History

321

The Late and Terminal Formative (ca 300 BG to AD 200) was the crucial period duringwhich the early Monte Alban state came into being and began to extend its political influ-ence over a wide area in lvhat is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca One of the most distinc-tive and frequent ceramic types of this period is the G12) which is a grayware (gris) bowlwith characteristic incising on the interior rim and base Originally defined byAlfonsoCaso) Ignacio Bernal) and ]otgeAcosta based on their excavations at Monte Alban) theG12 bowl has also beenftund at many other Oaxacan sites The incised motifs on the inte-rior basesof G12 bowlsshow substantial variability) but researchershave been uncertainwhether any portion of this variability shows chronologicalpatterning We present a newmicrotypology ofG12 bowls based on our recent excavations at three sites near SanMartinTilcajete) some 27 km south ofMonte Alban Our analysis yields a finer-grained chronologythat helps elucidate the step-by-step territorial expansion of the emetgentMonteAlbanstate

Introduction

The Late and Terminal Formative (approximately 300BC to AD 200) was a period of dramatic change in Oax-acan prehistory It was preceded by the Early Monte AlbanI phase (500-300 Bc) during which the site ofMonteAl-ban was founded on a hilltop in the central part of the Oax-aca Valley (Blanton 1978 Kowalewski et al 1989) Begin-ning in the Late Monte Alban I phase (300-100 BC) andcontinuing through the Monte Alban II phase (100BC-AD 200) key characteristics of state organization-such as a four-tiered settlement hierarchy tlle palace andthe specialized multiroom temple-made tlleir appearanceand Monte Alban began to extend its influence over tllerest of the Oaxaca Valley and some other surrounding re-gions (Ballltansky1998 2002 Blanton et al 1999 Marcusand Flannery 1996 Sherman 2005 Spencer and Red-mond 2001a 2004a)

Recent radiocarbon analyses have indicated that MonteAlbans conquest of certain distant regions such as the

Cafiada de Cuicatlan (FIG I) occurred surprisingly earlyperhaps by the onset of the Late Monte Alban I phase(Spencer and Redmond 2001b) Such a result suggestsmodels of early state formation in which aggressive terri-torial expansion plays an important causal role (Algaze1993 Carneiro 1970 Marcus 1992 Marcus and Flannery1996 Spencer 1998 Webster 1975) At the same timeother research indicates that certain parts of the OaxacaValley that lay much nearer to Monte Alban than the Cana-da were not incorporated into the early Zapotec state untillater perhaps not until the Monte Alban II phase (Elson2007 Elson and Sherman 2007 Feinman and Nicholas1990 Spencer and Redmond 20032006) These resultstaken together imply that the emergent Monte Alban stateexpanded its territory through an asymmetrical process aconclusion with implications for understanding early stateformation in general It is however important to empha-size that the proposed timing of Monte Albans expansionis tentative and requires additional confirmation and re-finement

322 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicojSpence1 Redmond) and Elson

D~ ltgulf Coasta Pain

Figure 1 The Valley of Oaxaca and surrounding regions with key archaeological sites indicated

EI Mogote

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Figure 2 The archaeological sites of El Mogote El Palenque andCerro Tilcajete or Los Mogotes located near the present town of SanMartin Tilcajete in the Ocotlin district of the Valley of Oaxaca

Figure 3 Complete G12 vessel (adapted from Caso Bernal andAcosta 1967 fig131a)

We are in agreement with Wrights (2006) call for a re-newed emphasis on the chronological refinement of se-quences of early state formation from around the world Inthe Oaxaca case for example we want to distinguish reli-ably between occupations of the Early Monte Alban I LateMonte Alban I and Monte Albin II phases a chronologi-cal sequence that derives from the pioneering work of Al-fonso Caso Ignacio Bernal and Jorge Acosta (1967) Ca-so and his colleagues used a number of ceramic types-

Journal of Field ArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 323

some rare and some abundant with varying lifespans - todefine these and other phases of occupation at Monte Al-ban Unfortunately archaeologists conducting surface sur-veys or excavating at valley-floor sites have found few of therare ceramic types and thus relied on luore abundant typesto date occupations Especially notable an10ng these moreabundant types is the G12 a grayware (gris) bowl withcharacteristic incising on the interior rin1 and base Its highrelative frequency and distinctiveness have long made it afavorite chronological indicator for Oaxaca archaeologistsYet as we explain in the next section Caso Bernal andAcosta (196 7) originally proposed that the G 12 lasted atleast five centuries encompassing both the Late Monte Al-ban I and Monte Alban II phases a lifespan that makes itdifficult to use the G12 by itself to distinguish betweenthese phases Although archaeologists have long beenaware of considerable variation in the style and executionof G12 incising they have been uncertain whether any ofthis variation represented chronological patterning Wepresent here new data on chronological variation in the in-cised decoration on G12 bowls derived fron1 our recentexcavations at three sites (EI Mogote [SMT-lla] EIPalenque [SMT-llb] and Cerro Tilcajete [SMT-23J) nearthe town of San Martln Tilcajete (henceforth Tilcajete) inthe Ocotlan district of tl1e Oaxaca Valley (FIG 2) These da-ta help verify or refine the occupational sequences at theseand other Late and Terminal Formative sites and relate tothe broader issue of the development and territorial ex-pansion of the Monte Alban state

The G12 Grayware Bowl Stylistic VariationMicrotypology and Chronology

The G12 ceran1ic type was originally defined in LaCeramica de Monte Alban (Caso Bernal and Acosta 196725-26) They noted that tl1e interior rim of a G12 bowlwas usually decorated witl1 two incised lines while the in-terior base often had incised designs that included concen-tric circles wavy lines scalloped lines zig-zags and pointsThey illustrated several examples of complete G12 bowls(Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 figs 130-131) showingthe co-occurrence of incising on rin1s and bases (FIG 3)They also provided illustrations of G12 sherds (CasoBernal and Acosta 1967 figs 4-6) Most of their illus-trated sherds were either rims or bases not rin1-to-base sec-tions a situation that contemporary archaeologists usuallyface when they encounter G12 sherds on surveyor duringexcavation Although Caso Bernal and Acosta used G12to refer to both the rims and bases it has been noted thatG12-style double-line incising on rims does not always oc-cur with G12-style incising on bases indeed it appearsthat G12-style rims started earlier and lasted longer than

324 CeramicMicrotypologyof Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca~MexicojSpence1Redmond~ and Elson

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Figure 4 Examples of G12a incised bases The designs were probably made with a thorn rather than acomb The top row ofsherds was redrawn from Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 fig 5 the second andthird rows show sherds from excavations at EI Mogote

G12-style bases (Kowalewski Spencer and Redmond1978 Spencer and Redmond 1997 166-167) We suspectthat Caso Bernal and Acosta considered making a typo-logical distinction between the incised rims and bases be-cause the figure captions for their figures 5 and 6 (whichshow incised bases) referred to the type as G14 eventhough each individual base was labeled G12 andG14 was never mentioned as a type in the body of thetext By contrast the caption for their figure 3 (depictingincised rims) referred to the type as G12 as did the in-dividuallabels beneath the drawings In the end howeverit is clear that Caso and his colleagues decided to useG12 to refer to rim sherds with double-incised lines andalso to the base sherds with the distinctive incising Whenwe conducted our analysis of ceramic samples from the ex-cavations at the three Tilcajete sites we decided to recordseparate frequencies for G12 rim sherds G12 base sherdsand G12 rim-to-base sherds

Oaxaca archaeologists have long noted that there is con-siderable stylistic variation among the base sherds classifiedas G12 (Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 figs 5-6) Dur-ing our Tilcajete analysis we were able to define three mi-crotypes of G12 incised bases that included the variabilityin our Tilcajete samples as well as that in the sample illus-trated by Caso Bernal and Acosta (1967 figs 5-6) Wecalled the three microtypes G12a G12b and G12c ex-amples of each microtype are illustrated here in our Figures4 5 and 6 Microtype G12a consisted of base sherds thathad been incised with a single or double thorn not a fine-toothed comb (FIG 4) Microtype G12b represented basesherds with carefully executed fine combing with minimalskipping or disjointed motifs (FIG 5) Examples of the

G12c microtype (FIG 6) were often (though not always)executed with a fine-tooth comb but they were distinctivefor having motifs that appeared incomplete or carelesslyrendered usually with notable skipping or disjointed mo-tifs We called G12c the sloppy microtype we surmisedthat it had been executed in a hastier less meticulous fash-ion than the G12b During our research we found that allanalysts could readily classify most G12 base sherds intoone of these three microtypes and we coded the hard-to-classify examples as indeterminate or other

The chronology of the G12 has been of considerable in-terest to archaeologists Caso Bernal and Acosta (196725) noted that the G12 first appeared in deposits of theirnivel Ib (midway through their Epoca I) which wouldcorrespond to the interface between what Marcus andFlannery (1996 table 3) have called Monte Alban Ia andMonte Alban Ie Others have called these phases MonteAlban Early I and Monte Alban Late I (Blanton et al1982 Kowalewski et al 1989) or the terms we use herethe Early Monte Alban I phase (500-300 BC) and theLate Monte Alban I phase (300-100 BC) (Spencer andRedmond 2001a) Caso Bernal and Acosta (1967 tablaVI) noted that the G12 continued to be used during theirEpoca II what others have called Monte Alban II (100BC-AD 200) (Marcus and Flannery 1996 table 3) Ca-so Bernal and Acosta (1967 tablas II XIII) also report-ed that the G12 persisted into their Epoca IlIa calledMonte Alban IlIa (AD 200-500) by Marcus and Flannery(1996 table 3) Caso and his colleagues viewed the occur-rences of G12 in IlIa contexts to be relatively infrequentsupervivencias de la Epoca II ie survivals from theMonte Alban II phase (Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 325

Figure 5 Examples ofG12b incised bases the designs were made with a fine-toothed comb with mini-mal skipping or disjointed motifs The top row of sherds was redrawn from Caso Bernal and Acosta1967 fig 5 the second third and fourth rows of sherds are from excavations at El Palenque

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344) Recent extensive excavations in the Monte Alban Il-Ia occupation at Santo Tomas Jalieza (Casparis 2006 Lu-ca Casparis personal communication 2007) recovered noexamples of G12 (either rims or bases) associated withclear Monte Alban IlIa pottery types such as G23 a gray-ware bowl with carving on the exterior wall

G12-style rims and bases have been reported over alarge area of Oaxaca including all major sections of theOaxaca Valley (Kowalewski et al 1989 fig 61) as well asin surrounding regions such as the Canada de Cuicatlan(Spencer and Redmond 1997 figs 460 462 464) theSola Valley (Balkansky 2002 plates 31 32) the Miahu-atlan Valley (Markman 1981 plate 5) the Mixteca Alta(Acosta and Romero 1992 fig 51 Joyce et al 2006 fig3) and the Pacific coast (Joyce Winter and Mueller 1998figs 213 214) There is evidence that this wide distribu-

tion was probably not the result of large-scale exportationof G12 bowls from a single production site For exampleneutron-activation analysis (NAA) found that some G12bowl sherds in the Canada de Cuicatlan were produced inthat region though other G12 examples were determinedto be imports from the Oaxaca Valley (Redmond and Har-bottle 1983) The NAA results discussed by Joyce and col-leagues (2006) show that some G12 bowls were exportedfrom the Valley of Oaxaca to the Lower Rio Verde theMixteca Baja and 11ixtecaAlta while others were made lo-cally in each region Another NAA study concluded thatG12 bowls at the Late Monte Alban I phase site of ElPalenque near San Martin Tilcajete were probably pro-duced in the vicinity of that site which lies in the northernpart of the Ocotlan district while G12 bowls from theYaasuchi site in the southwestern-central Oaxaca Valley

326 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicoSpencet Redmond) and Elson

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Figure 6 Examples ofG12c incised bases the designs are more sloppi-ly executed than those ofG12b with disjointed motifs and skippingThe top row of sherds was redrawn from Caso Bernal and Acosta1967 fig 5 the second row of sherds is from excavations at ElPalenque the third and fourth rows of sherds are from excavations atCerro Tikajete

were probably produced in that locality (Minc et al 2007)A grayware production site dating to the Early and LateMonte Alban I phases was discovered through survey andexcavation at San Agustin de las Juntas also in the centralOaxaca Valley it is likely that a series of grayware vesselsincluding G12 bowls were produced at this site (Feinman1986 Winter 1984) A recent petrographic study of Oax-acan graywares which included examples of G12 fromMonte Alban indicated that some G12 bowls were madeat Monte Alban itself while others were evidently pro-duced at locations several km to the sw of Monte Alban(Fargher 2007 table 2)

As Feinman and colleagues (1989 331) point outG12 bowls were probably not high-status items theywere less elaborate and less variable in overall appearancethan other contemporary vessels The presence of broadlysimilar G12 bowls over multiple regions probably reflectsthe exchange of stylistic information among producers andusers in numerous locales through modes of interactionthat were relatively informal and not greatly distorted bypolitical interference To draw a contrast it is likely that theG12 distribution during the Late Monte Alban I andMonte Alban II phases was less affected by political affI1ia-

tion between individual communities and Monte Albanthan was the distribution of contemporaneous types of thecream or crema ware (eg Co2 C6 C7 Cll C12C13 Co20) all crema wares were evidently produced withclay from deposits in the near vicinity of Monte Alban it-self (Elson and Sherman 2007 Feinman 1982 188-191Flannery and Marcus 1994 22 Joyce et al 2006) Indeedrecent excavations of Monte Alban II phase kilns near theMain Plaza of Monte Alban yielded a predominance ofthese crema wares (MartInez Lopez and Markens 200491 Markens and MartInez LOpez 2004)

It has been observed that the relative frequency of suchcrema wares at sites of the Late Monte Alban I and MonteAlban II phases exhibits notable variation among differentlocalities within the Oaxaca Valley (Elson and Sherman2007 Spencer and Redmond 2006) For exampleKowalewski and colleagues (1989 139) reported a LateMonte Alban I site (1-6-164-166) located ca 12 km NW

of Monte Alban and 5 km south of San Jose Mogote in theEtla-central area which yielded a surface collection where-in half of the sherds were composed of crema jars andbowls followed by gray types including G12 as well ascafi (brownware) types They drew a contrast with twoother Late Monte Alban I sites one of these (4-6-57 5960) was situated about 7 km NW ofYegiiih in the Tlacolu-la subvalley while the other (3-6-136) lay 18 km swofTilcajete in the Ocotlan-Zimatlan subvalley (FIG I) Sur-face collections at these two latter sites did not contain anycrema sherds though they did have sherds of G12 bowlsas well as examples of cafe ware This ceramic pattern isconsistent with the proposition that Monte Alban wasmore closely linked to the Etla-central area of the OaxacaValley than it was to the Tlacolula and Ocotlan-Zimatlanareas during the Late Monte Alban I phase (Feinman1998 128-129 Marcus and Flannery 1996 163 Sher-man 2005 Spencer and Redmond 2001a)

In view of the possible effects of variable political affili-ation on the distribution of crema wares it would be help-ful if a widely produced and distributed non-crema warecould be called upon to distinguish between Late MonteAlban I and Monte Alban II occupations The G12 is acandidate for this task but what is needed is a finer-grainedanalysis of G12 stylistic variation than has been conduct-ed Such an analysis requires excavated samples with reli-able chronological assignments as well as data on the dis-tribution of stylistic variants among the samples Such in-formation is now available from our Tilcajete Project

Ceramic Data from Excavations at SanMartin Tilcajete

Our intensive survey (1993-1994) and excavations

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 327

Table 1 Radiocarbon dates from San Martin Tilcajete Oaxaca In all cases the sample material was wood charcoal and the estimated13C12C ratio was -25 (except for 147541 at -245 and 165487 at -238) The conventional dates use AD 1950 as a baselineSiteBeta-analytic Conventional Conventional 2 sigmalab no Location Description aJfe (BP) date (calibrated)EIMogote98740 Feature 6 Trash-filled depression 2490 plusmn 60 540 BC plusmn 60 800-400 BC

dates plaza construction147541 On plaza surface near SE Pertains to burning and 2280 plusmn 40 330 BC plusmn 40 400-350 and 310-210 BC

corner of mound A abandonment of plazaEI Palenque147540 Structure 7 room 3 Between foundation 2300 plusmn 80 350 BC plusmn 80 740-710 and 530-180 BC

stones pertains toconstruction

143354 Structure 7 room 6 On floor pertains to 2110 plusmn 60 160 BC plusmn 60 360-280 and 240 BC-AD 20occupation

143351 Corridor between On floor pertains to 2080 plusmn 60 130 BC plusmn 60 350-310 and 210 BC-AD 55structure 7 and occupationstructure 8

160901 Area P feature 14 Midden 2270 plusmn 70 320 BC plusmn 70 400-350 and 310-210 BC143355 Structure 7 patio On floor pertains to 1970 plusmn 60 20 BC plusmn 60 100 BC-AD 140

abandonment143353 Structure 16 ashy Pertains to abandonment 1980 plusmn 70 30 BC plusmn 70 165 BC-AD 155

depositCerro Tilcajete143356 Plaza II structure 1 Below foundations 1870 plusmn 70 AD 80 plusmn 70 5 BC-AD 330

mound A

165487 Plaza I mound E Plaster floor 1810 plusmn 60 AD 140 plusmn 60 AD 70-370Test 8

(1995-2001) at the sites of El Mogote El Palenque andCerro Tilcajete (or Los Mogotes) revealed a shifting pat-tern of occupation (FIG 2) The three sites which were lo-cated by the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project(Blanton et al 1982 Kowalewski et al 1989) appear tohave served sequentially as the first-order center for theOcotlan-Zimatlan subvalley during the Early Monte AlbanI phase (El Mogote) the Late Monte Alban I phase (ElPalenque) and the Monte Alban II phase (Cerro Tilcajete)As a consequence we were able to recover abundant sam-ples of pottery for each of these three phases with negligi-ble inter-phase disturbance

El Mogote was the largest site in the Ocotlan-Zimatlansubvalley during both the Rosario phase (700-500 BC)

when it covered 25 ha and the succeeding Early Monte Al-ban I phase when the occupation area grew to 528 haThe Early Monte Alban I occupation featured a 22-haplaza oriented 17 degrees east of magnetic north (FIG 7)Based on our excavations in Mounds A K and D - on thenorthern and eastern sides of the plaza - we conclude thatthe plaza itself was laid out at the transition between theRosario and Early Monte Alban I phases The plaza con-struction project included the filling of depressions in thebedrock with trash as exemplified by our Feature 6 whichwas stratigraphically beneath Mound K Feature 6 pro-duced a large sample of pottery and a radiocarbon age of

2490 plusmn 60 BP (Beta-98740) in uncalibrated radiocarbonyears (all dates are uncalibrated unless otherwise indicat-ed) this is equivalent to a conventional radiocarbon dateof 540 BC plusmn 60 approximately at the end of the Rosariophase and beginning of the Early Monte Alban I phase(TABLE I) A total of 369 diagnostic sherds (which includesall sherds except undecorated body fragments) wererecorded in this feature Of these only two were recordedas G12 rims with double-line incising no G12 incisedbases were found in Feature 6

The El Mogote plaza and its associated buildings wereoccupied throughout the Early Monte Alban I phaseAmong the constructions in use was Structure 1 a one-room temple on Mound K on the plazas east side and ahigh-status residential complex (Structures 10 12 13 and1819) on Mound A on the plazas north side (FIG 7) Atthe end of Early Monte Alban I the El Mogote plaza wasburned and abandoned Our excavations found that theuppermost floors of the plaza and adjacent buildings werelittered with charcoal and burned debris One of theseburned deposits on the plaza surface near the southeasternbase of Mound A produced a radiocarbon age of 2280 plusmn40 BP (Beta-147541) or a conventional radiocarbon dateof 330 BC plusmn 40 near the end of the Early Monte Alban Iphase (TABLE I) By contrast our excavations in Area SandArea T in the residential zone ofEl Mogote (FIG 7) did not

328 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicoSpencer Redmond) and Elson

Figure 7 Topographic map of the El Mogote site showing the plaza lettered buildings andlettered excavation areas and shaded surface collection squares the elevation at the southeast-ern base of Mound A (plaza level) is 1603 mas

fmd evidence of burning and abandonment at the end ofthe Early Monte Alban I phase but did recover ceramicsdating to both the Early and Late Monte Alban I phasesimplying that occupation in this residential zone continuedinto the Late Monte Alban I phase The sites main plazashows scant evidence of utilization during the Late MonteAlban I phase when the focus of major public constructionin the Tilcajete area had shifted some 800 m to the westand upslope to the El Palenque site The ceramic sampleswe recovered in our excavations on the northern and east-ern sides of the El Mogote plaza should therefore pertainonly to the time period between the construction and theabandonment of the plaza ie the Early Monte Alban Iphase As Table 2 indicates out of the 6257 total diagnos-tic sherds recovered in the plaza area excavations at ElMogore 34 sherds (054) were G12 rim sherds while51 sherds (082) were G12 base sherds no G12 rim-to-

base sherds were found Most of the G12 base sherds (42sherds or 8235) at El Mogote were recorded as our mi-crotype G12a (single or double thorn incised) (FIG 4)Only a few (4 sherds 784) of the G12 bases were of mi-crotype G12b (fine combing) which became much morepopular during the succeeding Late Monte Alban I phaseNo examples of microtype G12c were recovered at ElMogote

Our survey and excavations at the El Palenque site (FIG

8) indicate that the settlement was founded around 300BC at the interface between the Early and Late Monte Al-ban I phases and was abandoned in the 1st century BC inthe early years of the Monte Alban II phase (Spencer andRedmond 2005) The new plaza at El Palenque had thesame orientation and a similar overall layout as the earlierone at El Mogote and neither plaza closely resembles (ei-ther in orientation or layout) the Main Plaza at Monte Al-

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 329

MN

r100m

Figure 8 Topographic map of the El Palenque site showing the plaza lettered buildings and letteredexcavation areas and shaded surface collection squares the elevation at the southeastern base of MoundH (plaza level) is 1629 mas

ban (Blanton 1978 fig 43) The total occupation in-creased to 715 ha including all of EI Palenque and mostof the residential sector (though not the plaza) of EIMogote Thus the size of the OcotIan-Zimatlan subvalleyfirst-order center at Tilcajete grew from 25 ha in Rosariophase to 528 ha in Early Monte Alban I and then to 715ha in Late Monte Alban 1

On the north side of the EI Palenque plaza (at MoundI) we excavated the well-preserved remains of what wehave interpreted as a palace called the Area Ipalace whichcovered some 850 sq m and was securely dated to the LateMonte Alban Iphase (Spencer and Redmond 2004b) Onthe east side of EI Palenques plaza at Mound G we exca-vated a Late Monte Alban I temple structure (Structure 16in Area G) that is similar though not identical to the two-room temples that Marcus and Flannery (1996 182) havedescribed for the later Monte Alban IIphase (Spencer andRedmond 2006 fig 27)

We recovered several radiocarbon dates spanning theoccupation ofEI Palenque in our excavation of Structure 7one of nine interconnected structures that made up the en-tire Area Ipalace (Spencer and Redmond 2004b) The ear-liest sample from Structure 7 yielded a radiocarbon age of2300 plusmn 80 BP (Beta-147540) or a conventional radio-carbon date of 350 BC plusmn 80 near the interface betweenthe Early and Late Monte Alban I phases (TABLE I) Thesample was a chunk of charcoal imbedded in the mud mor-tar between foundation stones on the east side of Structure7 in Area 1 This charcoal probably resulted from burningassociated with the clearing activities that preceded con-struction on the previously unoccupied hillside the char-coal was probably added to the mud mortar during thebuilding process Another sample was a piece of charcoallying on the floor of a room in Structure 7 of Area I it pro-duced a radiocarbon age of2110 plusmn 60 BP (Beta-143354)or a conventional radiocarbon date of 160 BC plusmn 60 with-

330 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicoSpencer Redmond) and Elson

Table 2 Frequencies and percentages of G12 microtypes at EI Mogote EIPalenque and Cerro TilcajeteSiteCategoryE1Mogote (all excavation areasexcept S and T)Total diagnostic sherdsG12 rim sherdsG12 base sherdsG12 rim-to-base sherds

G12a base sherdsG12b base sherdsG12c base sherdsIndeterminateother G12 base sherdsE1Palenque (all excavation areas)Total diagnostic sherdsG12 rim sherdsG12 base sherdsG12 rim-to-base sherdsG12a base sherdsG12b base sherdsG12c base sherdsIndeterminateother G12 base sherdsCerro Ti1cajete (Area A structure 1Area C structure 3 and feature 1Terrace 171)Total diagnostic sherdsG12 rim sherdsG12 base sherdsG12 rim-to-base sherdsG12a base sherdsG12b base sherdsG12c base sherdsIndeterminateother G12 base sherds

Frequencies

62573451o424o5

128612790242568

823844853

7520530340oo16276102

Percentages

054 of diagnostics082 of diagnosticso8235 ofG12 bases784 ofG12 baseso98 ofG12 bases

2169 of diagnostics1886 of diagnostics053 of diagnostics

032 ofG12 bases9563 ofG12 bases193 ofG12 bases213 ofG12 bases

705 of diagnostics452 of diagnosticsoo4765 ofG12 bases2235 of G12 bases300 ofG12 bases

in the occupation span of Structure 7 (TABLE I) Yet an-other sample was a piece of charcoal lying on a corridorsurface between the south wall of Structure 7 and Structure8 of Area I a stone platform that overlooked the EIPalenque plaza it yielded a radiocarbon age of 2080 plusmn 60BP (Beta-143351) or a conventional radiocarbon date of130 BC plusmn 60 in the latter half of the Late Monte Alban Iphase (TABLE I)

Our excavation in Area P some 50 m west of the south-western corner of the EI Palenque plaza (FIG 8) exposedStructure 9 which was probably a high-status residence-although it covered just one-eighth the area of the Area Ipalace Structure 9 had an associated midden (Feature 14)as well as a tomb (Burial 4) that contained three individu-als probably buried sequentially accompanied by twograyware anthropomorphic urns other vessels and shellbeads A charcoal sample from one of the lower levels ofthe midden yielded a radiocarbon age of 2270 plusmn 70 BP

(Beta-160901) or a conventional radiocarbon date of320BC plusmn 70 rougWy contemporaneous with the aforemen-tioned earliest date from Structure 7 (TABLE I) indicatingthat the initial occupation ofEI Palenque was probably notlimited to a small area

The occupation of EI Palenque came to a sudden end inthe latter part of the 1st century BC Evidence of burningwas extensive across the uppermost levels of our excava-tions The patio of Structure 7 was among the areas withlarge deposits of charcoal ash and burned adobes andearth A charcoal sample from the patio produced a radio-carbon age of 1970 plusmn 60 BP (Beta-143355) or a con-ventional radiocarbon date of 20 BC plusmn 60 (TABLE I)Structure 16 the multiroom temple had a similar depositof ash charcoal and burned earth that probably formedwhen the structure was burned in the conflagration thatmarked the end of habitation at EI Palenque A charcoalsample from this deposit yielded a radiocarbon age of 1980plusmn 70 BP (Beta-143353) or a conventional radiocarbondate of 30 BC plusmn 70 virtually identical to the final datefrom Structure 7 (TABLE I) Our excavations on the north-ern and eastern sides of the plaza as well as those in AreaP Area WI and Area W2 indicate that the entire EIPalenque site was abandoned in the 1st century BC

Based on the radiocarbon dates the time span repre-sented at EI Palenque runs from the middle of the 4th cen-tury BC to the latter half of the 1st century BC corre-sponding to the Late Monte Alban I phase and perhaps the

first few decades of the Monte Alban II phase Since a smallnumber of potsherd types usually associated with MonteAlban II were found in the EI Palenque excavations it isnot implausible that the occupation of the site lasted a fewyears into that phase (Spencer and Redmond 2004a) AsTable 2 shows out of the total of 12861 diagnostic sherdsexcavated at EI Palenque 2790 (2169) were G12 rimsherds 2425 (1886) were G12 base sherds and 68(053) were G12 rim-to-base sherds In contrast to theEI Mogote samples very few (8 sherds or 032) of theG12 base sherds were recorded as microtype G12a (sin-gle or double thorn incised) (FIG4) Nearly all (2384sherds or 9563) of the G12 base sherds were recordedas microtype G12b (fine combing) (FIG 5) A smallernumber (48 sherds or 193) of the G12 base sherds wereexamples of microtype G12c (sloppy combing) (FIG 6)

When EI Palenque was abandoned in the 1st centuryBC Cerro Tilcajete was founded atop a hill less than 1 kmto the north (FIG 2) Excavations conducted by Elson(2003 2006 2007) revealed that Cerro Tilcajete (FIG 9)was occupied throughout the Monte Alban II phase at theend of which (ca AD 200) the site was abandoned Elson(2003 table 5) reported numerous examples of well-known Monte Alban II pottery types in her excavationsamples including incised crema types Cll and C12 (Ca-so Bernal and Acosta 1967 68) painted amarillo typeA9(Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 70) and incised gris typeG21 (Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 67) The G21 type(Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 fig 43) has incising onthe interior base but it differs from G12 in that G21 in-cising consists of wider lines that seem to have been exe-cuted not with a comb or thorn but with a stick (estaca) ora piece of cane (carrizo) when the clay was dry but beforefiring (Caso Bernal and Acosta 1967 67)

At Cerro Tilcajete Elson excavated a number of struc-tures among them a two-room temple (Structure 2) verysimilar to those previously reported for the Monte AlbanII and later phases at Monte Alban and San Jose Mogote(Elson 2003 fig 41) (FIG r) Two plazas at the site weredefined and excavations in both of them recovered radio-carbon samples dating to the Monte Alban II phase InPlaza II the excavation of Structure 1 on Mound A (ahigh-status residence) produced a sample that yielded a ra-diocarbon age of 1870 plusmn 70 BP (Beta-143356) or a con-ventional radiocarbon date of AD 80 plusmn 70 (TABLE r) InPlaza I a plaster floor was exposed deep beneath MoundE associated with this floor was a sample that produced aradiocarbon age of 1810 plusmn 60 BP (Beta-165487) or aconventional radiocarbon date of AD 140 plusmn 60 (TABLE r)near the end of the Monte Alban II phase

Elson (2003 2007) has proposed that Cerro Tilcajete

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 331

functioned as a secondary administrative center of theMonte Alban state during the Monte Alban II phase Withan occupation covering some 245 ha at this time CerroTilcajete was less than half the size of the Late Monte Al-ban I occupation that was focused on EI Palenque-a dra-matic reversal of the aforementioned centuries-long trendtoward greater population nucleation at the first-order cen-ter in the Tilcajete locality The rest of the Monte Alban IIphase population in the Ocotlan-Zimatlan subvalley wasmostly distributed in a series of modest-sized villages(Kowalewski et al 1989 fig 723)

Cerro Tilcajete sits on a high ridge overlooking theOcotlan-Zimatlan subvalley and has an uninterrupted vi-sual connection to Monte Alban our survey mapped awell-preserved road that ascended the ridge from theMonte Alban side passed through Cerro Tilcajete andthen descended toward the Tilcajete locality and theOcotlan-Zimatlan subvalley proper (FIG 9) Consistentwith Elsons interpretation of the site as an administrativecenter under Monte Albans control are not only the afore-mentioned two-room temple but also an increase in the rel-ative frequency of slipped andor painted crema ceramics(as noted earlier probably produced at or very near MonteAlban) at Cerro Tilcajete compared to the earlier occupa-tions at EI Mogote and EI Palenque Figure 10 presents aline graph showing the relative frequency of slippedpaint-ed crema potsherds from excavated Early Monte Alban Ideposits at EI Mogote Late Monte Alban I deposits at EIPalenque and Monte Alban II deposits at Cerro Tilcajetethese data are compared to excavated samples for the samethree phases from Monte Alban The relative frequencywas computed by dividing the total number of crema pot-sherds with slipped or painted surface treatments by the to-tal number of diagnostic potsherds in the sample diag-nostic potsherds are all potsherds except undecorated bodysherds The crema types used in the analysis included C2CA C5 C6 C7 Cll C12 C13 and C20 followingthe typology of Caso Bernal and Acosta (1967) TheMonte Alban data come from Tabla I in Caso Bernal andAcosta (1967 97-98) which presents the relative fre-quencies of ceramic types from the PSAexcavations InFigure 10 the Early Monte Alban I (Ia) sample comesfrom Pozo 18 (Bolsa 73) the Late Monte Alban I (Ie)sample is from Pozo 17 (Bolsa 398) and the Monte Al-ban II sample is from Pozo 16 (Bolsa 326) BetweenEarly Monte Alban I and Late Monte Alban I the propor-tion of crema wares holds steady in the Monte Alban sam-ples by contrast the Tilcajete samples show a decline inthe proportion of crema wares between Early Monte AlbanI and Late Monte Alban I followed by a sharp increase inMonte Alban II (FIG ro) The results are consistent with a

332 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in OaxacaMexicoSpencerRedmond and Elson

Mound AStructure 1

Mound BStructure 2

MN

1100m

Figure 9 Topographic map of Cerro Tilcajete showing the two plazas lettered buildings and shadedsurface collection squares (redrawn from Elson 2003 fig 29) elevation at the southwestern top cornerof Mound F is 1848 mas

Journal of Field ArchaeologyVol 332008 333

045----------------------------------------

015f----------------------~--------------ITilcajete

041---------------------------- bull-----1

~Alban035f-------------------------==-~---------------I

bullbull~-------~ bullbull~bull bull03f-----------------------------------1

g 025f-----------------------------------1I -c 02f------------------------------r---------1

-----01f-------------------------c-lt-----------------I

005f---------------=-=--==- __-_=--------------------I

Early MA I Late MA I

Phase

0------------------------------------MAli

Figure 10 Relative frequency of slippedpainted crema ceramics in Early Monte Alban I (Early MA I)Late Monte Alban I (Late MA I) and Monte Alban II (MA II) phases at Monte Alban (top line) and theTilcajete sites (bottom line) Data from EI Mogote (Early MA I) and EI Palenque (Late MA I) are fromexcavations directed by Charles S Spencer and Elsa M Redmond Data from Cerro Tilcajete (MA II) arefrom excavations directed by Christina M Elson (2003 2007) Relative frequency is obtained by divid-ing painted andor slipped crema wares by total diagnostic ceramics Monte Alban data on relative fre-quencies are from Caso Bernal and Acosta (1967 tabla I)

pattern of reduced interaction between the Tilcajete sitesand Monte Alban that not only continued but declined fur-ther between Early Monte Alban I and Late Monte Alban1 A reversal then followed as the proportion of cremawares in the Tilcajete sample rose abruptly probably re-flecting an increase in interaction between Monte Albanand the Tilcajete area from Late Monte Alban I to MonteAlban II when it appears that the Tilcajete area was inte-grated into the Monte Alban state (Elson 2006 2007)

Because Elson found that Cerro Tilcajete (particularlythe Plaza I area) was partially reoccupied during the MonteAlban IIIb-IV phase (AD 500-1000) our analysis ofG12 sherds utilizes deposits that date unequivocally to theMonte Alban II phase These include samples excavatedfrom Structure 1 Area A (on Mound A) Structure 3 andFeature 1 from Area C and Structure 4 on Terrace 171(FIG 9) Structures 1 and 3 are associated with Plaza II andare interpreted as high-status residences Feature 1 was amidden associated with Structure 3 Some 260 m south ofPlaza II lay Structure 4 on Terrace 171 which was resi-

dential in character its inhabitants were probably of asomewhat lower status than those of Structures 1 and 3(Elson 2003 2007) As Table 2 shows out of the total of7520 diagnostic sherds in these samples 530 (705)were G12 rims and 340 (452) were G12 bases No ex-amples of microtype G12a were recorded A bit less thanhalf (162 sherds or 4765) of the G12 base sherds wererecorded as microtype G12b (fine combing) (FIG 5) Justunder a quarter (76 sherds or 2235) of the G12 basesherds were noted to be microtype G12c (sloppy comb-ing) (FIG 6)

Chronological Patterning in G12 BasesSince our radiocarbon dates support the proposition

that EI Mogote EI Palenque and Cerro Tilcajete were se-quential occupations we can bring the ceramic samplesfrom these sites directly to bear on the problem of G12chronology In Figure 11 one can see that G12 bowlsherds (both rims and bodies) achieved their highest rela-tive frequency during the occupation of EI Palenque (Late

would agree with long-held views in Oaxaca archaeologyUsing G12 sherds to distinguish between Late Monte Al-ban I and Monte Alban II phase deposits is a more chal-lenging problem however Although we have document-ed a substantial decline in relative G12 frequency betweenthe two phases there is sufficient representation in eachphase to mal(e it unwise to use the frequency of G12sherds to date a surface collection or a slnall excavated sam-ple to either the Late Monte Alban I phase or Monte Al-ban II phase exclusively A finer-grained analysis is neededand is provided by the relative frequencies of G12 lni-crotypes in the samples from the three sites

There is a pronounced asymmetry in the distribution ofmicrotypes G12a G12b and G12c alnong the excavatedsamples at EI Mogote EI Palenque and Cerro Tilcajete(FIG 12) Most notably G12a (thorn incised) bases are al-most entirely restricted to the EI Mogote samples all ofwhich derived from excavations in the structures lining thenorthern and eastern sides of the plaza as we have notedthis plaza was burned and abandoned around 300 BC atthe end of the Early Monte Alban I phase Since no G12bases at all were found in the Feature 6 sample (dating toca 500 BC the onset of Early Monte Alban I) we suspectthat G12a bases appeared toward the end of the EarlyMonte Alban I phase when they were the most frequentG12 microtype G12b (finely con1bed) bases made theirappearance as a minority microtype before the end of theEarly Monte Alban I phase but they surged in popularityduring the Late Monte Alban I phase and can1e to vastlyoutnulnber G12a bases which became very rare in theLate Monte Alban I phase and disappeared by the MonteAlban II phase G12c (sloppily combed) bases made theirearliest appearance in our Late Monte Alban I phase sam-ple from EI Palenque though n10re numerous than G12abases they were still overwheln1ed by the predominantG12b bases In the Monte Alban II phase sample fromCerro Tilcajete the relative frequency of G12c bases grewdramatically while G12b bases waned although G12bbases continued to be more numerous overall

Our results could be helpful to archaeologists who seekto distinguish among occupations of the Early Monte Al-ban I Late Monte Alban I and Monte Alban II phases Werecognize that tl1e Tilcajete samples were large and werefrom excavated proveniences for which we had relativelysecure chronological control and ideally we would rec-ommend that otl1ers compare our results with similar ex-cavated samples N evertl1eless some of the features of ouranalysis should be useful even if one is faced with a smallexcavated sample or a surface collection For example wesuggest that the presence of one or more G12a base sherdsin a small sample or collection constitutes evidence of a

334 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxacay MexicoSpencer Redmondy and Elson

45

40

35VI0

Q~ 30uo+0

25c01roi3ro 204-0Q)

1501

~CQ)u 10Q

Q

5

0EI Mogote EI Palenque Cerro Tilcajete

Figure 11 Bar graph of relative frequencies of G12sherds (rims plus bases) in the excavated samples fromthe Tilcajete sites

100-------------------------

-0Q~ 80~ro0

N

0 60

ro4-0ClJ

4001roCClJ~ClJQ

20

oEI Mogote EI Palenque Cerro Tilcajete

Figure 12 Bar graph of the relative frequencies ofmicrotypes G12a G12b and G12c in the excavatedsalnples from the Tilcajete sites

Monte Alban I phase) with the rin1s and bases togetheramounting to 4108 of the diagnostic sherds at thattime G12 sherds are present less frequently at Cerro Tilca-jete the G12 rilns and bases constitute 1157 of the di-agnostics in the Monte Alban II phase san1ple from thatsite G12 sherds (rims and bodies) are very rare indeed inthe Early Monte Alban I deposits at El Mogote adding upto just 13600 of the diagnostics One can reasonably inferfroln these data that the G12 bowl was largely a LateMonte Alban I and Monte Alban II type a conclusion that

highly-probable occupation dating to the late years of theEarly Monte Alban I phase but not later G12b occursover a wider time span and is less useful for chronologicalpurposes nevertheless its relative frequency varies consid-erably which allows for chronological assessments of vary-ing levels of probability We suggest that the presence ofone or a few G12b sherds in a sample would point to aLate Monte Alban I occupation of relatively high proba-bility a Monte Alban II occupation of medium probabili-ty or an Early Monte Alban I occupation of very low prob-ability The presence of one or a few G12c sherds in a sam-ple is much more likely to represent a Monte Alban II oc-cupation than a Late Monte Alban I occupation it is notlikely at all to represent an occupation earlier than the LateMonte Alban I phase

Broader ImplicationsThe results of our G12 analysis might also have impli-

cations for the study of broader issues that call for fine-grained dating of Laterrerminal Formative occupationalsequences To illustrate let us explore one of these issuesthe territorial expansion of the Monte Alban state a topicof considerable interest and debate among Oaxaca scholars(Balkansky 1998 2001 Flannery and Marcus 2003 Joyce2004 Joyce et al 2000 Marcus and Flannery 1996 Red-mond and Spencer 2006 Sherman 2005 Spencer 2007Zeitlin 1990 Zeitlin and Joyce 1999) Spencer (20062007) has proposed a two-stage model of this process thatsees Monte Alban annexing the Canada de Cuicatlan thePenoles area and the Sola Valley during the Late MonteAlban I phase and then expanding the range of its controlduring the Monte Alban II phase to include the Ocotlan-Zimatlan and Tlacolula subvalleys as well as the Ejutla andMiahuatlan valleys Ocelotepec Chiltepec N ejapa andpossibly the Tututepec areas (FIG 13) Spencer and Red-mond (2003 2006) have discussed the various resistancestrategies that the polities in the Ocotlan-Zimatlan andTlacolula subvalleys may have used to withstand MonteAlban throughout the Late Monte Alban I phase

In the Canada de Cuicatlan several lines of evidence (in-cluding the abrupt relocation of settlements accompaniedby violence reorganization of local social and political or-ganization restructuring of local economic activities andimposition of an oppressive foreign ideology) support theproposition that the Canada was conquered by Monte Al-ban around 300 BC and remained in a subordinate rela-tionship until approximately AD 200 (Spencer and Red-mond 1997 2000 2001b) This interpretation is consis-tent with Marcuss (1976 1980 1983) hypothesis that theinscription on Lapida 47 on Monte Albans Building Jrefers to a conquest of the Canada During the 1977-1978

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 335

Canada Project (Spencer and Redmond 1997) excava-tions were carried out at two major components of tlle LaCoyotera site (Cs25) (FIG I) Llano Perdido occupiedduring the Perdido phase (750-300 BC) correspondingto the Rosario and Early Monte Alban I phases and Lomade La Coyotera inhabited during the Lomas phase (300BC-AD 200) corresponding to the Late Monte Alban Iand Monte Alban II phases The Llano Perdido occupationpre-dates the proposed takeover of the Canada by the Val-ley Zapotec the village was burned and completely aban-doned after which settlement was shifted to the Loma deLa Coyotera ridge that overlooks the earlier village (Red-mond 1983 fig 48) The latest radiocarbon sample we re-covered from the Llano Perdido site yielded a radiocarbonage of2370 plusmn 100 BP (Beta-143347) or a conventionalradiocarbon date of 420 BC plusmn 100 and a 2-Sigma cali-brated result of 790-195 BC (Spencer and Redmond2001b table 1) The earliest radiocarbon sample we exca-vated from the Loma de La Coyotera site produced a ra-diocarbon age of2170 plusmn 70 BP (Beta-143349) or a con-ventional radiocarbon date of 220 BC plusmn 70 and a 2-Sig-ma calibrated result of 390-40 BC (Spencer and Red-mond 2001b table 1) The midpoint of tlle overlap be-tween this pair of 2-Sigma ranges is approximately 300BC (Spencer and Redmond 2001b fig 8) It is notableand consistent with the radiocarbon dates that G12 baseswere not found at Llano Perdido while excavations at Lo-ma de La Coyotera produced many G12 bases includingexamples of what we would now call G12a bases (Spencerand Redmond 1997 fig 464 SI-148 fig 465 SI-156)and G12b bases (Spencer and Redmond 1997 fig 464SI-146 SI-147) A comparison of excavated midden de-posits reveals an increase in the relative frequency of im-ported Oaxaca Valley crema wares from 255 of tlle di-agnostic sherds of the Perdido phase to 677 of the di-agnostic sherds of the Lomas phase (Spencer and Red-mond 1997 table 42) a likely indication of greater inter-action between Monte Alban and the inhabitants of thisCanada community after 300 BC

At rougWy the same time as the abandonment of LlanoPerdido the plaza area of EI Mogote at Tilcajete wasburned and abandoned (ca 300 BC) Unlike Llano Perdi-do however much of the residential zone of EI Mogotecontinued to be occupied after the plaza was burned Wefound G12b bases in 22 of our 54 controlled intensivesurface collections at EI Mogote the distribution has adoughnut ring shape with the plaza area located in thedoughnut hole of the distribution where G12b baseswere absent Spencer and Redmond (2003 2006) haveproposed tllat EI Mogote was attacked around 300 BC

probably by forces from Monte Alban but they have also

336 Ceramic Microtypology of Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicoSpencer Redmond) and Elson

TehuacanValley

CANADA DE CUICATLAN

NochixtlanValley

Monte Negro A

~~ Tlacolula bullbullbull

VALLEY OF~ I bullbullbull~OAXACA ~ ~~

Occitlan-Zimatlan ~ ~

Mouth ofRio Verde

+NI

NEJAPAe

50 km

Figure 13 Two-stage model of Monte Albans territorial expansion the solid line shows the proposedextent of territory dominated by Monte Alban during the Late Monte Alban I phase (300-100 BC)

which expanded during the Monte Albin II phase (100 BC-AD 200) to include the area bow1ded bythe dashed line (Map redrawn from Spencer 2007 fig 32 base map redrawn from Marcus and Flan-nery 1996 fig 242)

argued that Tilcajetes inhabitants in contrast to those ofthe Canada appear to have withstood the attack They re-built their plaza on a higher more defensible ridge at theEI Palenque site and continued to resist Monte Alban un-til the 1st century BC An10ng their resistance strategieswere an increasing nucleation of population at the first-or-der center from 25 ha in the Rosario phase to 528 ha inthe Early Monte Alban Iphase then to 715 ha in the LateMonte Alban Iphase a continuation between Early MonteAlban I and Late Monte Alban Iof the traditional Tilcajeteplaza layout distinct in orientation and configuration from

that of Monte Alban the development of secondary stateorganization at Tilcajete by Late Monte Alban I (palacemultiroom temple four-tier settlement pattern in theOcotlan-Zimatlan subvalley) (Spencer and RedlTIond2004a 2004b) and reduced interaction between the Tilca-jete locality and Monte Alban between the Early Monte Al-ban I and Late Monte Alban I phases as evidenced by theaforementioned crema ceramic data (FIG 10) Further-more because G12a sherds were recovered from the plazaarea of EI Mogote but not from the Llano Perdido site inthe Canada we conclude that the proposed attack on Llano

Perdido while roughly contemporaneous nonethelessmust have preceded the abandonment of the EI Mogoteplaza - by an unknown number of years but probablysometime in the final decades of the Early Monte Alban Iphase

Turning now to the Mixteca Alta Balkansky Perez Ro-driguez and Kowalewski (2004) have asserted that the siteof Monte Negro (FIG 13) was probably not part of MonteAlbans expanded polity during the Early Ramos phase(corresponding to the Late Monte Alban I phase) Ratherit is more likely that Monte Negro was a center of Mixtecresistance against Monte Alban which appears to have ex-panded into the northern part of Penoles partially pene-trating the MixtecaAlta Finsten (1996 84) noted potteryvirtually indistinguishable from vessel fragments found atcontemporary Valley of Oaxaca setdements dating to theLate Monte Alban I and Monte Alban II phases at sitesalong a communications corridor that must have been im-portant to the Monte Alban state

Monte Negro covered some 78 ha in the Early Ramosphase and contained a population of some 2500-5000people malcing it the largest site of its time in the Tilan-tongo area It was located on a steep-sided defensible hill-top 2600 m in elevation and some 500 m above the valleyfloor (Ball(anskyet al 2000 Ball(anskyPerez Rodriguezand Kowalewski 2004) Monte Negro was preceded by theLate Cruz phase (750-300 BC) center of La Providenciawhich sprawled over 91 ha on a lower hilltop a few lcilo-meters to the NE (Balkansky Perez Rodriguez andKowalewski 2004 fig 6) The ceramic assemblage atMonte Negro includes materials associated with the LateMonte Alban I phase including G12 bowl sherds andG17 fish plate sherds (Balkansky Perez Rodriguez andKowalewski 2004 50-51) but no materials associatedwith the Monte Alban II phase They conclude that the oc-cupation of Monte Negro corresponds to the Ic phase(dut for us would include the transitional seldom-usedand brief Ib phase) (Ball(ansky Perez Rodriguez andKowalewslci2004 51)

Let us use our G12 base microtypology to compare thetiming of Monte Negros founding to the burning andabandonment of Llano Perdido in the Canada and the EIMogote plaza at Tilcajete Illustrations of two G12 basesherds are presented by Balkansky Perez Rodriguez andKowalewski (2004 fig 12c) they are both examples ofwhat we would call G12b bases implying a Late MonteAlban I phase occupation contemporaneous with EIPalenque and Loma de La Coyotera Excavations conduct-ed in the 1930s by Alfonso Caso yielded a large ceramicsample including what we would call G12a bases (Acostaand Romero 1992 figs SIb SIc) and G12b bases (Acos-

Journal ofFieldArchaeologyjVol 33) 2008 337

ta and Romero 1992 figs 51a SId) but no examples ofour G12c bases We would consequendy align the aban-donment of La Providencia and the founding of MonteNegro with the attack on Llano Perdido and the foundingof Loma de La Coyotera in the Canada but with an im-portant difference the new site in the Canada was proba-bly under Monte Albans thumb while Monte Negro re-mained autonomous and continued to resist

Balkansky (2002) has argued that his survey data fromthe Sola Valley about 75 km sw of Monte Alban (FIG 13)indicate that this region was also brought under Monte Al-bans control by Late Monte Alban 1 Whereas the EarlyMonte Alban I phase in the Sola Valleywas a time of sparseoccupation (a single small site) the Late Monte Alban Iphase saw a major influx of setdement associated wid1 ce-ramics that closely resemble those of the Oaxaca Valleyin-cluding G12 bowls (Ball(ansky 2002 37 plate 32) Hisanalysis demonstrated that the distribution of Late MonteAlban I sites does not correspond to the distribution of thebest quality agricultural soils (Balkansky 2002 42) Not-ing that several key sites are located along what would havebeen the major route between the Oaxaca Valley and thePacific coast he suggested that Monte Albans expansioninto the Sola Valley seems intended to control this bound-ary region for its access to the coast (Balkansky 2002 84)He concluded that the Sola Valley continued to be domi-nated by Monte Alban through the Monte Alban II phase(Balkansky 2002 95)

Monte Albans sphere of control appears to have ex-panded still further in the Monte Alban II phase and mayhave eventually covered as much as 20000 sq km (Marcusand Flannery 1996 206) Among the areas that were pos-sibly subjected to Monte Albans expansionistic designswas Tututepec on the Pacific coast (FIG 13) Marcus(1976) proposed that the conquest slab inscription onLapida 57 of Building J at Monte Alban referred to Tu-tutepec Marcus and Flannery (1996 201) drew attentionto pottery from the Tututepec region that showed a closerelationship with Monte Alban I and Monte Alban II pot-tery (DeCicco and Broclcington 1956 59) Yet investiga-tors working recendy in the Tututepec area (Worlcinger2002) and in the Lower Rio Verde zone (FIG 13) (JoyceWinter and Mueller 1998) have suggested that the Pacificcoast may have had a somewhat different relationship toMonte Alban than the Canada or the Sola ValleyWe sus-pect that Monte Alban utilized a variety of military diplo-matic and economic tactics as it sought to expand its in-fluence moreover it undoubtedly encountered a range ofresponses from the various target regions Some regionsmay have capitulated outright others may have negotiatedan uneasy truce nourished by tribute payments and still

338 Ceramic Microtypologyof Early Monte Alban in Oaxaca) MexicoSpencetRedmond) and Elson

other regions may have been drawn into exchange rela-tionships that were less favorable to them than to MonteAlban In any case the regions over which Monte Albanmanaged to exert some form of dominance by the MonteAlban II phase probably included not only the Ocotlan-Zi-matlan and Tlacolula subvalleys of the Oaxaca Valley butalso Ejutla (Feinman and Nicholas 1990) Miahuatlan(Brockington 1973 Markman 1981) Nejapa andOcelotepec (Marcus and Flannery 1996 199-202) Addi-tional research in all these areas would do much to helpclarify the nature of their relationships with Monte Albanduring the Late Monte Alban I and Monte Alban IIphases

ConclusionThe ceramic data are consistent with a model of asym-

metric territorial growth of the emergent Monte Albanstate which sees Monte Alban launching a campaign of ag-gressive extra-valley expansion to the north west andsouthwest at the beginning of the Late Monte Alban Iphase (ca 300 BC) while the eastern (Tlacolula) andsouthern (Ocotlan-Zimatlan) subvalleys within the OaxacaValley continued to resist Moreover our comparison ofG12 microtypes at Tilcajete versus those in the Canadaand at Monte Negro leads to a finer-grained conclusionthat Monte Alban commenced its extra-valley expansioneven earlier than the action which led to the abandonmentof EI Mogotes plaza and the construction of a new plazaat EI Palenque by the resisting Tilcajete leadership Theeventual annexation of the Tilcajete area by Monte Albancame much later in the first century of the Monte Alban IIphase (ca 20-30 BC) The overall picture is of an emer-gent Monte Alban state that found it feasible to expand in-to weaker but more distant regions before bringing itsnearer but more daunting rivals in the Oaxaca Valleyunderits political control At the same time the conquest of dis-tant regions like the Canada would surely have posed ma-jor administrative and military challenges Monte Albanseems to have responded to such challenges by developinga more complex political and military organization duringthe course of the Late Monte Alban I phase a transforma-tion that could have been financed in part by tribute ex-acted from the conquered areas By the onset of the MonteAlban II phase an increasingly powerful Monte Albanturned its sights on lingering centers of intra-valley resis-tance (such as Tilcajete) and it was not long before the en-tire Oaxaca Valley was incorporated along with other re-gions into the expansive Monte Alban state

AclmowledgmentsThe following organizations provided generous finan-

cial support for the Tilcajete Project the National ScienceFoundation (SBR-9303129 and BCS-0083254) theFoundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Stud-ies Inc the Heinz Family Foundation (Latin AmericanArchaeology Program) the National Geographic Society(Committee for Research and Exploration) the RackhamGraduate School of the University of Michigan the Grif-fin Fund of the Department of Anthropology at the Uni-versity of Michigan the Museum of Anthropology at theUniversity of Michigan and the American Museum ofNatural History Permission to conduct the Tilcajete field-work was granted by the Consejo de Arqueologia Institu-to N acional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) MariCarmen Serra Puche Joaquin Garda-Barcena and Rober-to Garda Moll served sequentially as president of the Con-sejo during the years of our Tilcajete field and laboratoryresearch At the Centro INAH Oaxaca we are grateful toEduardo LOpez Calzada and Enrique Fernandez Davilawho served sequentially as director of the Centro duringour field and laboratory seasons as well as Nelly RoblesRaul Matadamas Marcus Winter and Cira MartinezLopez for their support of our research In the field wehave been assisted by Luca Casparis Jason ShermanChristopher Glew Laura Villamil Andrew BalkanskyMichelle Lopez Alan Covey Scott Hutson and KennethMcCandless Bridget Thomas McKnight Christina Elsonand Jennifer Steffey prepared the illustrations

Charles S Spencer (phD 1981) University ofMichigan)Ann Arbor) is Curator ofMexican and Central AmericanArchaeology at the American Museum ofN atural History)New YOrk He is interested in the cultural evolution of complexsocietiesin Mesoamerica and South America Mailing ad-dress Division ofAnthropology) American Museum ofNatur-al History) Central Park l1lest at 79th Stree~ New YOrk)NY10024-5192 E-mail cspenceramnhorg

ElsaM Redmond (phD 1981) Yale University) is a Re-searchAssociate at the American Museum ofN atural History)New York She is interested in the cultural evolution of com-plex societiesin Mesoamerica and South America E-maileredmondamnhOIg

ChristinaM Elson (phD 2003) University ofMichigan)is a Research Associate at the American Museum of NaturalHistory) New York She is interested in the development of elitehierarchies and bureaucracy and the trajectories ofMesoamer-ican states E-mail celsonamnh01g

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