Christopher A Pool
Biographic Data
| ID | 199954 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher A Pool |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher A |
| FAMILY NAME | Pool |
| SIGNATURE | POOL C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kentucky |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7638-0693 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 184 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs
The Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs provides an overview of recent research on this most elaborate of Mesoamerica’s foundational cultures (ca. 1450–400 BC). Few objects of study have sparked more debate in Mesoamerican studies than the role of Olmec culture in the origins of that region’s civilizations, with some seeing it as the mother from which all significant cultural developments sprang and others as one of several “sister cultures,” each cont…
Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs
Settlement and the exploitation of aquatic resources in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico
Research conducted since 2003 in and around the regional center of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz documents the importance of aquatic resources and transportation routes for subsistence and settlement over more than two millennia. Systematic archaeological survey over more than 400 km2 in the surrounding Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin details a persistent focus of major settlements on streams and other bodies of water that would have provided an abundanc…
Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica
The Environs of Tres Zapotes as the Find-Spot of the Tuxtla Statuette
The famous greenstone figure known as the Tuxtla Statuette is one of only 12 objects known to bear an epi-Olmec inscription and was the first to become known to scholarship. For more than a century its original find-spot was imprecisely and erroneously identified as lying in the township of San Andrés Tuxtla or, more generally, in the Tuxtla Mountains. Correspondence in the National Anthropology Archives of the Smithsonian Institution documents t…
Transisthmian Ties: Epi-Olmec and Izapan Interaction
In 1943, Matthew Stirling (1943:72) once opined, “Izapa appears to be much more closely related to the earth-mound sites of southern Veracruz ... than it does with sites in the Maya area.” Since then, scholars have postulated ties of varying strength between Late Formative polities on either side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Ceramic similarities have been noted between southern Chiapas and the Gulf Coast, but discussion of Late Formative transi…
Creating Memory and Negotiating Power in the Olmec Heartland
Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology
Economic growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian consumption in the coastal lowlands
Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings
Seasonal wetlands and exuberant crop growth present challenges to systematic archaeological survey in alluvial settings, particularly in the tropical lowlands. Lidar can reduce the time and cost required to survey such areas by allowing targeting of elevated features not buried under recent alluvium, but demographic interpretation requires estimating post-abandonment alluvial depths. The broad alluvial plain between the Papaloapan delta and the T…
The Archaeology of Disjuncture: Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico
Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have-intentionally or unintentionally-focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glos…
Formative Obsidian Procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: Implications for Olmec and Epi-Olmec Political Economy
We report the results of chemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts from Tres Zapotes using X-ray fluorescence analysis. This is the first obsidian sourcing study for this major Olmec and Epi-Olmec center in which samples are drawn from secure archaeological proveniences specifically assigned to Early, Middle, Late Formative, and Protoclassic periods. We employed a stratified random sampling strategy to select 180 obsidian artifacts from excavated a…
Mesoamerican Archaeology: Recent Trends
This article provides an overview of recent trends in Mesoamerican archaeology. It discusses the various paradigms that have shaped the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. It describes the field's contributions to the understanding of human-environmental interactions, settlement-pattern research and cultural-resource management, ancient Mesoamerican economics and politics, society and polity, and beliefs and rituals. This is followed by a discussi…
The Formation of Complex Societies in Mesoamerica
The story of the Formative (Preclassic) period in Mesoamerica is fundamentally one of sociopolitical origins. That is, anthropological interest in this time span revolves around the origins and early development of “complex” social institutions and the material conditions and ideological precepts that supported them. This article broadly sketches issues surrounding the formation of complex societies and urban centers in early Mesoamerica, emphasi…
The Oxford handbook of Mesoamerican archaeology
Unique among recent works, this title brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology
The Early Horizon at Tres Zapotes: Implications for Olmec Interaction
Modeling Olmec participation in Early Horizon interaction networks requires better understanding of the relations of Gulf Olmec communities with one another as well as with contemporaries elsewhere in Mesoamerica. We compare pottery, figurines, and obsidian assemblages from a recently isolated Early Formative component at Tres Zapotes with contemporary assemblages from San Lorenzo and Macayal, both in the Coatzacoalcos basin. Our analysis indicat…
Asking More and Better Questions: Olmec Archaeology for the Next Katun
The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexico's southern Gulf lowlands as well as important new work on Formative period interregional interaction and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative research on the evolution of s…
Residential Pottery Production in Mesoamerica
Exchange of Coarse Orange pottery in the Middle Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico
But Robert, Where Did the Pots Go? Ceramic Exchange and the Economy of Ancient Matacapan
Among Robert Santley's major contributions to Mesoamerican archaeology was the modeling of ancient economic systems. In particular, Santley proposed that the economies of Teotihuacan's dependents were organized as dendritic central-place systems geared toward the bulking and export of goods and materials. Ceramic production and exchange figured prominently in Santley's dendritic model for the economy of Matacapan and the Tuxtla Mountains. In this…
Rational Exuberance: Mesoamerican Economies and Landscapes in the Research of Robert S. Santley
Consistent with his enthusiastic embrace of cultural ecology and cultural materialism, Robert S. Santley (1948-2006) saw the economy as basic to the organization of social and belief systems. We review Santley's contributions to Mesoamerican archaeology in the context of broader issues and debates and introduce the articles that make up this special issue in his memory
“Great Stone Faces of the Mexican Jungle”
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Olmec Beginnings
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica
The foundations for the Maya and other civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica were laid down over 2400 years ago during the early and middle phases of the Formative period. The most elaborate of these formative Mesoamerican societies are represented by the archaeological culture called Olmec, which merged some 3500 years ago in the tropical lowlands of southern Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico. Flourishing over the next 1000 years, the Olmecs created t…
Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico
The Ceramics Production System at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico
This paper describes the evidence for specialized ceramics production at Matacapan, a large Classic-period site in the Tuxtlas Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The ceramics production system at Matacapan contained a larger number of production nodes. These production entities varied greatly in size, complexity, and internal differentiation, suggesting that there were major differences in the mode of production. Many of these production sit…
A Ceramic Perspective on the Formative to Classic Transition in Southern Veracruz, Mexico
For any particular historical circumstance, explanations of ceramic evolution should consider the performance characteristics of pottery vessels in their behavioral contexts, as well as the varying effects of evolutionary processes operating at different social, spatial, and temporal scales. The replacement of tempered black and differentially fired serving vessels by fine-paste wares during the Formative to Classic transition in the Sierra de lo…
Intensive Ceramic Production and Classic-Period Political Economy in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico
Matacapan, a Classic-period center in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, is known for its strong stylistic affinities with Teotihuacan. The Comoapan complex is a ceramic-production area situated along the southern edge of Matacapan. Data from Comoapan indicate that pottery manufacture was large scale and intensive, with final products distributed outside of Matacapan and possibly beyond the Tuxtlas. These data suggest that models of Tux…
Exchange of Coarse Orange pottery in the Middle Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico
Creating Memory and Negotiating Power in the Olmec Heartland
The Archaeology of Disjuncture: Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico
Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have-intentionally or unintentionally-focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glos…
Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico
Formative Obsidian Procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: Implications for Olmec and Epi-Olmec Political Economy
We report the results of chemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts from Tres Zapotes using X-ray fluorescence analysis. This is the first obsidian sourcing study for this major Olmec and Epi-Olmec center in which samples are drawn from secure archaeological proveniences specifically assigned to Early, Middle, Late Formative, and Protoclassic periods. We employed a stratified random sampling strategy to select 180 obsidian artifacts from excavated a…
The Early Horizon at Tres Zapotes: Implications for Olmec Interaction
Modeling Olmec participation in Early Horizon interaction networks requires better understanding of the relations of Gulf Olmec communities with one another as well as with contemporaries elsewhere in Mesoamerica. We compare pottery, figurines, and obsidian assemblages from a recently isolated Early Formative component at Tres Zapotes with contemporary assemblages from San Lorenzo and Macayal, both in the Coatzacoalcos basin. Our analysis indicat…
Why a Kiln? Firing Technology in the Sierra De Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz (Mexico)
The benefits of one ceramic firing technology over another are not absolute, but depend upon the interaction of multiple environmental, economic and social factors, as well as the specific design of firing facilities. The coexistence of updraft kilns and open firing methods in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, for over 1700 years provides a case‐in‐point. Evaluation of the performance characteristics of ancient and modern firing techno…
Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings
Seasonal wetlands and exuberant crop growth present challenges to systematic archaeological survey in alluvial settings, particularly in the tropical lowlands. Lidar can reduce the time and cost required to survey such areas by allowing targeting of elevated features not buried under recent alluvium, but demographic interpretation requires estimating post-abandonment alluvial depths. The broad alluvial plain between the Papaloapan delta and the T…
Asking More and Better Questions: Olmec Archaeology for the Next Katun
The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexico's southern Gulf lowlands as well as important new work on Formative period interregional interaction and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative research on the evolution of s…
Residential Pottery Production in Mesoamerica
Transisthmian Ties: Epi-Olmec and Izapan Interaction
In 1943, Matthew Stirling (1943:72) once opined, “Izapa appears to be much more closely related to the earth-mound sites of southern Veracruz ... than it does with sites in the Maya area.” Since then, scholars have postulated ties of varying strength between Late Formative polities on either side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Ceramic similarities have been noted between southern Chiapas and the Gulf Coast, but discussion of Late Formative transi…
Settlement and the exploitation of aquatic resources in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico
Research conducted since 2003 in and around the regional center of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz documents the importance of aquatic resources and transportation routes for subsistence and settlement over more than two millennia. Systematic archaeological survey over more than 400 km2 in the surrounding Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin details a persistent focus of major settlements on streams and other bodies of water that would have provided an abundanc…
The Ceramics Production System at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico
This paper describes the evidence for specialized ceramics production at Matacapan, a large Classic-period site in the Tuxtlas Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The ceramics production system at Matacapan contained a larger number of production nodes. These production entities varied greatly in size, complexity, and internal differentiation, suggesting that there were major differences in the mode of production. Many of these production sit…
Prehispanic Exchange Relationships among Central Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Gulf Coast of Mexico
Intensive Ceramic Production and Classic-Period Political Economy in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico
Matacapan, a Classic-period center in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, is known for its strong stylistic affinities with Teotihuacan. The Comoapan complex is a ceramic-production area situated along the southern edge of Matacapan. Data from Comoapan indicate that pottery manufacture was large scale and intensive, with final products distributed outside of Matacapan and possibly beyond the Tuxtlas. These data suggest that models of Tux…
Why a Kiln? Firing Technology in the Sierra De Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz (Mexico)
The benefits of one ceramic firing technology over another are not absolute, but depend upon the interaction of multiple environmental, economic and social factors, as well as the specific design of firing facilities. The coexistence of updraft kilns and open firing methods in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico, for over 1700 years provides a case‐in‐point. Evaluation of the performance characteristics of ancient and modern firing techno…
A Ceramic Perspective on the Formative to Classic Transition in Southern Veracruz, Mexico
For any particular historical circumstance, explanations of ceramic evolution should consider the performance characteristics of pottery vessels in their behavioral contexts, as well as the varying effects of evolutionary processes operating at different social, spatial, and temporal scales. The replacement of tempered black and differentially fired serving vessels by fine-paste wares during the Formative to Classic transition in the Sierra de lo…
Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico
“Great Stone Faces of the Mexican Jungle”
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Olmec Beginnings
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica
The foundations for the Maya and other civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica were laid down over 2400 years ago during the early and middle phases of the Formative period. The most elaborate of these formative Mesoamerican societies are represented by the archaeological culture called Olmec, which merged some 3500 years ago in the tropical lowlands of southern Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico. Flourishing over the next 1000 years, the Olmecs created t…
Exchange of Coarse Orange pottery in the Middle Classic Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico
But Robert, Where Did the Pots Go? Ceramic Exchange and the Economy of Ancient Matacapan
Among Robert Santley's major contributions to Mesoamerican archaeology was the modeling of ancient economic systems. In particular, Santley proposed that the economies of Teotihuacan's dependents were organized as dendritic central-place systems geared toward the bulking and export of goods and materials. Ceramic production and exchange figured prominently in Santley's dendritic model for the economy of Matacapan and the Tuxtla Mountains. In this…
Rational Exuberance: Mesoamerican Economies and Landscapes in the Research of Robert S. Santley
Consistent with his enthusiastic embrace of cultural ecology and cultural materialism, Robert S. Santley (1948-2006) saw the economy as basic to the organization of social and belief systems. We review Santley's contributions to Mesoamerican archaeology in the context of broader issues and debates and introduce the articles that make up this special issue in his memory
Asking More and Better Questions: Olmec Archaeology for the Next Katun
The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexico's southern Gulf lowlands as well as important new work on Formative period interregional interaction and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative research on the evolution of s…
Residential Pottery Production in Mesoamerica
The Early Horizon at Tres Zapotes: Implications for Olmec Interaction
Modeling Olmec participation in Early Horizon interaction networks requires better understanding of the relations of Gulf Olmec communities with one another as well as with contemporaries elsewhere in Mesoamerica. We compare pottery, figurines, and obsidian assemblages from a recently isolated Early Formative component at Tres Zapotes with contemporary assemblages from San Lorenzo and Macayal, both in the Coatzacoalcos basin. Our analysis indicat…
Mesoamerican Archaeology: Recent Trends
This article provides an overview of recent trends in Mesoamerican archaeology. It discusses the various paradigms that have shaped the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. It describes the field's contributions to the understanding of human-environmental interactions, settlement-pattern research and cultural-resource management, ancient Mesoamerican economics and politics, society and polity, and beliefs and rituals. This is followed by a discussi…
The Formation of Complex Societies in Mesoamerica
The story of the Formative (Preclassic) period in Mesoamerica is fundamentally one of sociopolitical origins. That is, anthropological interest in this time span revolves around the origins and early development of “complex” social institutions and the material conditions and ideological precepts that supported them. This article broadly sketches issues surrounding the formation of complex societies and urban centers in early Mesoamerica, emphasi…
The Oxford handbook of Mesoamerican archaeology
Unique among recent works, this title brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology
Formative Obsidian Procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: Implications for Olmec and Epi-Olmec Political Economy
We report the results of chemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts from Tres Zapotes using X-ray fluorescence analysis. This is the first obsidian sourcing study for this major Olmec and Epi-Olmec center in which samples are drawn from secure archaeological proveniences specifically assigned to Early, Middle, Late Formative, and Protoclassic periods. We employed a stratified random sampling strategy to select 180 obsidian artifacts from excavated a…
The Archaeology of Disjuncture: Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico
Reconstructing human interaction systems has been a major objective of archaeological research, but we have typically examined the topic in a conceptually limited manner. Most studies have-intentionally or unintentionally-focused on how trade, communication, conquest, and migration foster cultural similarities over long distances. It has largely been a positivistic endeavor that exclusively features groups linked through a single network but glos…
Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology
Economic growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian consumption in the coastal lowlands
Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings
Seasonal wetlands and exuberant crop growth present challenges to systematic archaeological survey in alluvial settings, particularly in the tropical lowlands. Lidar can reduce the time and cost required to survey such areas by allowing targeting of elevated features not buried under recent alluvium, but demographic interpretation requires estimating post-abandonment alluvial depths. The broad alluvial plain between the Papaloapan delta and the T…
Creating Memory and Negotiating Power in the Olmec Heartland
Transisthmian Ties: Epi-Olmec and Izapan Interaction
In 1943, Matthew Stirling (1943:72) once opined, “Izapa appears to be much more closely related to the earth-mound sites of southern Veracruz ... than it does with sites in the Maya area.” Since then, scholars have postulated ties of varying strength between Late Formative polities on either side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Ceramic similarities have been noted between southern Chiapas and the Gulf Coast, but discussion of Late Formative transi…
Archaeology (24 works) · Geography (22 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (19 works) · History (13 works) · Mesoamerica (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Latin American history and culture (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Anthropology (7 works)