Polity and Ecology in Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca

5. Place-Making and Power in the Terminal Formative: Excavations on Río Viejo’s Acropolis

135 Archaeological research in the lower Río Verde Valley shows that a centralized polity first developed in the region during the Terminal Formative period (150 BC–AD 250). The region experienced significant population growth at this time with the area occupied in the regional survey zone increasing from 299 ha in the Late Formative Minizundo phase (400–150 BC) to 699 ha by the late Terminal Formative Chacahua phase (AD 100–250). Social inequality also increased, as shown by evidence from mortuary offerings, domestic architecture, ceremonial caches, and monumental buildings (Barber 2005, Chapter 6; Joyce 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 186–195). The most powerful community in the region during the Terminal Formative was the urban center of Río Viejo (Joyce 2005, 2008, 2010). Río Viejo increased in size from 25 ha in the Minizundo phase to 225 ha by the early Terminal Formative Miniyua phase, with a slight decrease in area to 200 ha by the Chacahua phase. During the Chacahua phase a massive public acropolis was constructed at Río Viejo and became the civic-ceremonial center of the polity. Although monumental public buildings were built at San Francisco de Arriba and Charco Redondo as early as the Minizundo phase (Butler 2011; Workinger 2002), these structures were dwarfed by the construction of the F i V e plaCe-makIng and power In the termInal FormatIve Excavations on Río Viejo’s Acropolis Arthur A. Joyce, MArc N. LeviNe, ANd SArAh B. BArBer DOI: 10.5876/9781607322023.c05 136 Arthur A. Joyce, MArc N. LeviNe, ANd SArAh B. BArBer acropolis at Río Viejo, which we have designated Mound 1 (Figure 5.1). in its final form, the acropolis covered an area of 350 m × 200 m and supported two large superstructures rising to at least 17 m above the floodplain (designated Structures 1 and 2, respectively) as well as a large plaza, a sunken patio, and several smaller buildings. excavations in 2000 and 2009 provide evidence of the construction history and use of Río Viejo’s acropolis (Figure 5.2). in this chapter we present a detailed discussion of the acropolis excavations and their implications for political relations during the Terminal Formative. We will show that the construction of the acropolis required a massive mobilization of labor and represented a huge communal labor project. These practices, which had been important in the constitution of community identities since at least the Minizundo phase, may have been co-opted and expanded in scale by rulers. An outcome of the construction and use of the acropolis was the creation of broader regional affiliations and forms of social interaction that enhanced the authority of the rulers of Río Viejo, if only briefly (Barber 2005, Chapter 6; Barber and Joyce 2007; Joyce 2005, 2006). Although there still is much work to be done to fully comprehend the significance of this massive structure, we suggest that the acropolis was an exercise in place-making. We define place-making as the process by which human actions and history become embedded in the landscape, providing a physical and temporal anchor for social identities (Ashmore 2002; Basso 1996; Pred 1984). The construction and use of socially meaningful places through architecture can transform social identity by reordering space as well as people’s experiences and associations with those places (A. Joyce 2009; R. Joyce 2004). We argue that the construction and use of the acropolis materialFigure 5.1. Río Viejo Mound 1, photographed from 1 km to the southwest (after Joyce et al. 1998: Lámina 4.5). 137 PLAce-MAkiNg ANd Power iN the terMiNAL ForMAtive ized a new corporate identity centered on the ruling institutions of Río Viejo. The evidence indicates, however, that regional political authority was tenuous, contested, and relatively short-lived. At ca. AD 250 the acropolis was burned and abandoned, and the broader Río Viejo polity collapsed, probably as a result of political conflict and instability within the region. The AcrOpOlIs excAvATIOns excavations were carried out on the Mound 1 acropolis as part of a long-term study of the origins and development of centralized political authority in the lower Rio Verde Valley (Joyce 2005, 2008, 2010). Survey, excavation, and mapping at the site of Río Viejo were carried out in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2000, and 2009 with excavations on the acropolis during the latter two field seasons (Joyce 1991a; Joyce and Barber...