Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico, Postclassic Chronology

Hydration analysis of obsidian from Cihuatecpan, an Aztec–period village

Bibliographic Data

ID6033770
AuthorsSusan Toby Evans (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Anncorinne Freter (Ohio University)
Year1996
Volume7
Issue2
Pages267-280
Publication date1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536100001462
OpenAlexW2151991110
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited34

The Postclassic period in central Mexico was characterized by enormous population growth and expansion of settlement, but the timing of the onset of these processes has been poorly understood. Obsidian tools from residential contexts at the Late Postclassic village of Cihuatecpan in the Teotihuacan Valley have been analyzed to determine the extent of hydration, and thus the amount of time elapsed since the tools were manufactured. Estimated dates of manufacture range betweena.d.1221 and 1568, consistent with ethnohistoric accounts of the timing of establishment of Cihuatecpan and other rural villages, and their abandonment in the Early Colonial period. Ceramics found in the same contexts as the obsidian tools include Black-on-orange types, such as III, which may have come into use in the thirteenth century. This experiment in relative and absolute dating accords with other current research, indicating a needed revision of traditional chronologies toward an earlier onset of major processes

Abandonment (legal · Archaeology · Chronology · Geography · Period (music · Population · Settlement (finance · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Demography · History · Latin American history and culture

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