Item Details

title

Proyecto Arqueológico Suchilapan, Temporada 2024

author

MacLellan, Jessica

author

García Hernández, Melina

abstract

This report gives an account of the first field season of the Suchilapan Archaeological Project, which was carried out from May to July 2024 in the municipality of Jesús Carranza in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The project is directed by Dr. Jessica MacLellan of Wake Forest University and is authorized by the Archaeological Council of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). The project focuses on a group of monumental centers along the Coatzacoalcos River that were recently recognized on low-resolution LiDAR maps and named Veracruz Ceremonial (VC) complexes by Takeshi Inomata and colleagues. The Coatzacoalcos River was an important trade and communication route between the Olmec Gulf Coast and the Oaxacan highlands. The Suchilapan region lies south of the Olmec center of San Lorenzo, near the Oaxacan border. This research tests the hypotheses that the practice of constructing monumental platforms for public rituals spread from the Olmec cultural region to the Maya lowlands, and that communal activities associated with these platforms contributed to the transition to a sedentary lifestyle. The objectives are 1) to understand the chronologies of archaeological sites featuring VC complexes, and 2) to determine how the construction of VC complexes relates to the adoption of an agricultural lifestyle during the Early and Middle Formative periods (c. 2000-400 B.C.). Chapter 1 presents the background and objectives of the overall project, along with the activities of the 2024 season. Chapters 2 through 4 describe the details of the excavations at three archaeological sites: Boca de Chalchijapan, Río Abundancia and La Oaxaqueña. Chapter 5 deals with the 2024 laboratory work, consisting of paleobotanical analyses. The sixth and final chapter presents the conclusions of this research season. According to our excavations in 2024, Boca de Chalchijapan and Río Abundancia had very light and short Formative era occupations, and La Oaxaqueña had a longer and deeper Formative occupation, with more construction activity. This suggests that levels of residential mobility (living in one place year-round, rather than moving seasonally) may have differed between VC sites. More research is needed to make conclusions about the dates of construction and occupation and subsistence at these complexes.

subject

archaeology

Mesoamerica

Olmec

Mexico

Veracruz

excavation

date

2024-11-11T18:47:07Z (accessioned)

2024-11-11T18:47:07Z (available)

2024 (issued)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/110067 (uri)

rights

Open access, no embargo. Chapter authors and editors are copyright holders.

type

Technical Report