Power, Craft Production, and Exchange in Southern Mesoamerica

Kenyon College, Gambier OH

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Patricia Urban, Edward Schortman, and Ms. Marne Ausec have worked to describe and explain changes in prehistoric power relations within the adjoining Naco and lower Cacaulapa valleys, Northwestern Honduras. The basic question has been, and remains, "How did a few come to rule the many?" Answering this deceptively straightforward query requires examining the ways in which local rulers marshaled political and economic forces within their societies and forged alliances with peers in neighboring realms. The hypothesis guiding this research proposes that: 1. Rulers exercised dominion by monopolizing local access to imported commodities valued and needed by the general populace, as well as locally produced items, such as ceramic vessels and stone tools; 2. Commoners surrendered their labor and loyalty to local notables in return for access to these goods; 3. Unwilling to go gently into dependence, commoners also used their skills and immediately available resources to make as many items for their own use and trade as possible, thereby minimizing reliance on local lords; 4. This competition resulted in a population divided by the power ndividuals, families, or factions could wield and the wealth they enjoyed. Work funded by the National Science Foundation in Naco, from 1990-1996, was instrumental in establishing this model; investigations pursued in the lower Cacaulapa valley from 1999-2000, also funded by the NSF, are crucial to testing these ideas. Survey of 7km2 in the lower Cacaulapa drainage identified a major political capital, El Coyote, with over 340 prehistoric structures covering 0.7km2. Excavation of 2,850m2 on and around 40 buildings at El Coyote and in five rural sites revealed a history of occupation that diverged markedly from the expected. Specifically, emerging data patterns suggest that first, El Coyote came to prominence during the Late Classic period (AD 600-950; the site was founded as early as AD200), possibly as an outpost of its larger Naco Valley contemporary, La Sierra. Second, rather than staying within La Sierra's shadow, El Coyote's rulers established their independence by AD 1000. Third, building on their new-found autonomy, lower Cacaulapa notables went on to fashion a realm that was growing in size and complexity, and acquiring goods from as far away as central Mexico and Guatemala's Pacific coast, between AD 1000-1300, when neighboring societies, including those in Naco, suffered profound declines. Assessing these preliminary interpretations requires further analyses of ceramics, stone tools, faunal and floral remains, as well as human skeletons, to be conducted with National Science Foundation support during May through December, 2001. These studies will focus on: 1. stylistic studies of artifacts, particularly ceramics, designed to help date deposits, and infer the external connections enjoyed by lower Cacaulapa residents through time; 2. technological analyses aimed at identifying the range and scale of specialized production activities in which residents of El Coyote and its hinterland engaged; 3. functional studies aimed at reconstructing changes in patterns of consumption and production across time and space; 4. distributional assessments, to test for artifact patterns suggestive of wealth and power differences; 5. examination of skeletal remains to describe demographic processes as well as stresses (for example, dietary deficiencies, injuries, physical changes from movements unique to certain occupations) to which lower Cacaulapa populations were heir. The planned work is crucial to writing lower Cacaulapa valley prehistory and comparing the ways in which political and economic processes were manipulated there and within other ancient states. The research applies not just to Honduras, or even the ancient New World, but to any society in which those seeking power tried to alter their societies, while others resisted domination.