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170 life. In each cycle we see dramatic evidence of changes in social organization, economics, and ideology. We can identify at least four cycles in the sequence prior to the development of archaic states during the Late Formative period: (1) Paso de la Amada (Locona-Ocos phases); (2) Canton Corralito (Cuadros Phase); (3) Ojo de Agua (Jocotal phase); and (4) La Blanca (Conchas phase). The fifth cycle in the Formative-period sequence involves the development of archaic states at El Ujuxte, Izapa, and Takalik Abaj (Love 2010, 2011, at press). During the Late Formative period, El Ujuxte was the dominant polity of the eastern Soconusco coastal plain, while Izapa and Takalik Abaj developed in the piedmont region. If we call the beginning of the sequence a simple chiefdom and the end points states, the second through fourth cycles would probably all be called complex chiefdoms of varying scale. We use these categories of social forms solely as an ordinal scale and do not wish to imply that they conform to neo-evolutionary idealized societal types. Indeed, the significant differences among the three complex chiefdoms illustrate The greater soconusco saw the dramatic transformation of human societies during the second and first millennia b.c., with the transition from the first sedentary villages to urban settlements taking place in just 1,500 years (ca. 1900–400 b.c.).* Change during that time undoubtedly was constant, but it was not necessarily seamless. While manifestly the long-term trend was toward increasing complexity , there may have been episodes of turmoil leading to cycles in which political integration alternated with times in which centralized political power was weak (Love 2002a). The clearest evidence that we have of political cycling on the coastal plain is the frequent change of capital cities. Although the ultimate causes of cycling may prove to be climatological, because of low overall rainfall and wide variation in annual totals the effects of political cycling were evident in many areas of ancient *All dates are in calendar years. For regional chronology , see Figure 1.3 in Chapter 1; for sites not shown on Figure 8.2 in this chapter, see Figures 1.1 and 1.2. EIGHT La Blanca and the Soconusco Middle Formative Michael Love and Julia Guernsey la blanca and the middle formative 171 PRELUDE La Blanca developed in the eastern portion of the Soconusco, between the Río Naranjo and the Río Tilapa, the latter being the formal boundary of the Soconusco region. In some areas of the site there are aceramic levels with obsidian and groundstone that might indicate an Archaic-period use of the locale; but there are no radiocarbon dates to confirm that proposition . There is more abundant evidence of occupation during the Locona and Ocos phases found in secondary contexts throughout the eastern portion of the site, but no pure or undisturbed deposits of those two periods have been found. The principal occupation of La Blanca began at about 1000 b.c., or early in the Middle Formative Conchas phase. The site was occupied throughout the Conchas phase but declined noticeably after 600 b.c., when the locus of the regional capital shifted to the site of El Ujuxte, some 12km east of La Blanca. During the ensuing Caramelo, Cataluña, and Pitahaya phases (600 b.c.–a.d. 100), the site declined to the size of a small village. La Blanca’s rise to prominence followed the decline of the Jocotal-phase settlement of Ojo de Agua, Chiapas (Clark and Hodgson 2004). Although still poorly known, Ojo de Agua was part of the “second wave” of the Olmec interaction network (the term Olmec here is used to denote “a group of people, or peoples, who shared a suite of cultural practices” [Clark and Pye 2000: 217–218]). Ojo de Agua was also the first site in the region to build small, public temple-pyramids around a central plaza (Clark and Hodgson 2004). The extent of the site is uncertain, but probably exceeds 100 hectares (ha). The Jocotal phase as a whole is still not well understood, and the type of polity associated with Ojo de Agua is likewise enigmatic. Nonetheless , we know that Ojo de Agua declined sharply at the beginning of the Middle Formative period and that it was the last capital within the Mazatán district. Following its demise, the the problematic nature of neo-evolutionary typologies. Our focus in this chapter is the fourth cycle and the...

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