Origins of the Ñuu: Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Mexico

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331 Thus far our discussion has been involved with the particulars of the Mixteca Alta. Here we place the archaeological results into a more general Mesoamerican and comparative perspective. In this final chapter we reach five major conclusions. These concern the method of archaeological survey, the societies of the Formative period, the nature of the state, episodes of decline and abandonment, and a form of urbanism that is primarily agrarian. Survey Survey is early homonin behavior: more or less upright posture, hands free, bipedal locomotion, visual attention to surroundings, in touch with nearby comrades, on the lookout for wild dogs, searching for food. Survey is late homonin activity too: thought, pattern recognition, comparing visual input to cognitive models, talking about what is seen. The Ñuu in Anthropological Perspective Chapter eleven 332 w The Ñuu in Anthropological Perspective As method, systematic, regional surface survey is a practical, efficient, low-cost means of locating, describing, and dating archaeological sites and their components. Such surveys deliver new research questions and hypotheses and frame the context for further investigations at smaller scales. In Mesoamerica, survey works in the mountains as well as in valley settings. We found 999 sites (1,670 components) in 1,622 km2 . Many of these sites are spectacular in their degree of preservation of artifacts, architecture, subsurface deposits , and their setting. More detailed investigations, revisits, and excavations will show that there is much more to the archaeological record than we report here. In spite of erosion, plowing, looting, and neglect the archaeological record of the Mixteca Alta still leaves experienced archaeologists standing in wonder. Some of the sites of the Central Mixteca Alta are among the largest of their time periods known in Oaxaca. The Early Formative occupations at Tayata, Diuxi, and Xacañi cover over 50 ha each. The Middle Formative site of La Providencia at Tilantongo spreads over 90 ha. Monte Negro, the most famous Late Formative site in the Mixteca Alta, has an area of 78 ha and its contemporary at Cerro Jazmín was just as large. The Terminal Formative urban complex at Huamelulpan sprawled over more than 2 km2 . Early Classic Cerro Jazmín had 230 ha of dense urban occupation and it grew to over 577 ha in the Postclassic. There are not many major towns as awesomely fortified as Yucuninde. The Pueblo Viejo at Teposcolula is one of the most impressive Postclassic capitals in Oaxaca. Few major sites in Oaxaca can match Cerro de la Peña Grande at San Mateo Peñasco for its spectacular setting and daring architecture. The total extent of the archaeological sites we mapped is 125.8 km2 or 7.8 percent of the project’s land area. For just the Postclassic sites the total site area is 105.5 km2 or 6.3 percent compared to 3.7 percent for the Postclassic in the Valley of Oaxaca (Kowalewski et al. 1989:755) and 6.2 to 12.5 percent for the Basin of Mexico (Smith 2002:110). This is the first systematic study of the archaeology of the Central Mixteca Alta. It is the current baseline for cultural resource management and heritage interpretation in that area. The data reported here provide an empirical starting point for framing and testing new research models. Nevertheless, this study must be considered preliminary to and not a substitute for studies of intrasite variability, systematic study of artifacts, and excavations as in the research carried out by Pérez (2003) and Heredia (2005) and the projects underway at Tayata (Balkansky) and Teposolula Pueblo Viejo (Spores and Robles 2006). Given the methodological efficiencies demonstrated in several dozen full-coverage regional surveys since the 1970s, there is now little justification for unsystematic, reconnaissance-style survey in Mesoamerica. We are not asserting that all archaeological surveys should be like this one because, depending on research, design methods will vary in grain, intensity, and scale of area, but unsystematic reconnaissance may entail costs equivalent to a well-managed full-coverage survey and produce less information. As discussed in Chapter 1, this project made certain improvements in field and lab procedures relative to previous surveys in highland Mesoamerica: bet- The Ñuu in Anthropological Perspective w 333 ter paperwork and data organization in the field and lab, daily data entry and checking in a relational database, and use of GIS in early stages of the project. Improvements need to be made in our field and lab...