Case Studies-Early Formative San Jose Mogote Puerto Escondido

Case Studies-Early FormativeSan Jose Mogote

Puerto Escondido

Case Study-San Jose Mogote Valley of Oaxaca, ca. 1400 B.C.

Covered 5 acres (1 acre=1/2 hectare), and contained several public buildings.

Early maize, avocado, and other cultigens for subsistence, but also wild plants and animals.

Household Units Houses contained braziers, earth ovens, manos

and metates, ceramic jars. Outside the house were bell-shaped pits, burials.

San Jose Mogote

http://www.famsi.org/cgi-bin/print_friendly.pl?file=03006

Village Activities Magnetite mirror production

Magnetite polished into mirrors and traded. Manufactured in areas 1-2 sq meters, suggesting

individual craftsmanship. Unused iron ore, quartz or hematite for polishing,

oyster “mirror holders”. In one household, four stratigraphic levels contained

this material suggesting four generations of manufacture.

Artifacts from San Jose Mogote

Artifacts from San Jose Mogote

Non-residential Architecture Nonresidential constructions can tell us

much about societies. size and construction can tell us about

available labor and poser to organize. form or shape can tell us the activities that

took place. *i.e. an open plaza or “danceground” would have

very different participants than the enclosed ritual space in temple on top of mounds.

Hilltop ceremonial center

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/mogote.htm

Hilltop temple ruins

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/mogote.htm

Public Architecture: “Men’s Houses”

http://www.famsi.org/reports/03006/images/fig03.jpg

First Writing The earliest writing appears at the site of San Jose Mogote in

the form of a glyph. Between two buildings is a corridor in which a threshold stone is

placed so that anyone passing through the passage would have to step over the stone. The carving depicts a dead captive with blood flowing from a chest wound and between his legs is a name glyphs meaning 'I Motion' in the 260-day calendar of the Zapotec.

The Valley of Oaxaca was a place of competition between chiefs and these chiefs were not happy to merely show the dead captives in stone. They also included the captives calendrical name. Thus, Zapotec

writing was born from competition and later was used as a weapon for gaining power.

San José Mogote: From Monument 3 ca. 500 B.C.

http://zapotec.agron.iastate.edu/toxoo.html

Early Warfare A radiocarbon date of 1500 BC, from a house fire.

It is probable that several hundred people lived there and approximately18 other villages existed in the valley.

A fire also burned a palisade surrounding part of San José Mogote.

The palisade was dated to 1300 BC, which is the oldest date for a fortification.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4167

Burnt Postholes from the Palisade

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_947896.htm

Puerto Escondido Puerto Escondido consists of several large

mounds formed by residential debris. “They are found in the central part of the

valley, in the alluvial zones adjacent to the major rivers”.

This information is from a web site compiled by Marilyn Dispensa and John Henderson (Cornell University). http://instruct6.cit.cornell.edu:13000/history.htmhttp://instruct6.cit.cornell.edu:13000/site_explorer/sitelink.php?site=CR372

Location of Site

http://instruct6.cit.cornell.edu:13000/history.htm

http://instruct6.cit.cornell.edu:13000/site_explorer/sitelink.php?site=CR372

Puerto Escondido Four, low dirt mounds. Several house structures, some of which were

burned with pottery, features and other artifacts.

The pottery is particularly interesting because it is similar to ceramics from the Olmec culture-located on the coast of Vera Cruz.

Mound Profile


Hearth


Plaster


Excavation View


Pottery


Figurines

Drawing of a small solid hand-modelled figurine depicting a person, probably female, with elaborated hairdo or headdress


Figurines, con’d.

Drawing of a large solid hand-modelled figurine depicting a person wearing a necklace


Jewelry

Jewelry: circular green jade bead; shell "sequin" (presumably sewn to fabric); fragment of worked jade light green jade (probably a piece of jewelry in the process of manufacture); blue-green jade pendant in the form of a tooth (http://instruct6.cit.cornell.edu:13000/site_explorer/sitelink.php?site=CR372).

Documents

Case Studies-Early Formative San Jose Mogote Puerto Escondido