Chris Beekman
2000+ Tequila Valley Regional Archaeological Project (TVRAP)
Chris Beekman
In recent years, anthropologists have increasingly rejected static and normative models of political structure in favor of more dynamic models of political behavior. This extends particularly to the competitive practice of elite performance and patronage to gather followers among commoners, and alliance-building to gain adherents among other elites. These strategies frequently employ labor-intensive, ideologically charged prestige goods as gifts and symbols of power, and their use and distribution typically occur in highly visible contexts, such as the space associated with public architecture. Although factional competition of this nature tends to result in an unstable political arena, it creates a situation in which some groups can potentially rise to positions where they can edge out competitors. The suppression of factionalism may result, and the extensive use of prestige goods to construct alliances and to serve in elite performance may be expected to decline even as a polity becomes more consolidated and stable. Although these changes may be predicted on the basis of theory, few studies exist that specifically address this connection between prestige goods and political stability. Fewer still have considered how the specific uses of prestige goods may have differed between these stable and unstable political environments, and whether there may be tendencies towards conformity or local variation in the materialization of ideology. It is also unclear as to how the local strategies of gift-giving and public performance may relate to larger trends outside the immediate region, such as the rise and fall of interregional trade networks or neighboring political systems.
These questions will be addressed in the Tequila valleys. The earliest stages of the Teuchitlan Tradition (the Pre-Tabachines and Early Tabachines phases) find an association between the architecture and elite tombs, as well as an elaborate array of local and imported prestige goods. In the following Middle Tabachines and Late Tabachines phases, there is increasing evidence for political centralization and unification, simultaneous with the disappearance of most clear indicators of elite culture. The El Grillo phase witnesses the return of political fragmentation, along with new and elaborate prestige goods and new forms of public architecture. These transitions back and forth between periods of intensive factional competition, and its apparent suppression in a consolidated polity, appear to correspond to a fluctuation between Network and Corporate strategies, or between Wealth and Staple Finance. However, this reconstruction and the proposed link between prestige goods and factionalism are in need of testing, particularly since most prior research in the region has necessarily been broad and culture-historical in its goals. The shift in strategies resembles that noted elsewhere in Mesoamerica at this time (e.g. Teotihuacan, the Classic Maya), and promises a wider relevance for the project's findings.
To this end, this project will examine examples of public space (elite residences and public architecture) to study how ideology was materialized during the consolidation and decline of the Teuchitlan Tradition, and how changes at the local level correspond to larger transformations in West Mexico. This will require: 1) a functional evaluation of the architectural space, to determine what activities took place there; 2) a contextual study of artifacts recovered, to help reconstruct patterns, if not meaning, of the items from these locations; 3) explicit comparisons of activities and artifacts from the periods of centralization (The Early and Middle Tabachines phases - about which we already have some data), consolidation (The Late Tabachines phase), and decentralization (The El Grillo phase); and 4) the systematic collection of radiocarbon samples from these critical contexts, to better tie local changes to broader West Mexican regional processes.
Year 2000 field season
Chris Beekman, Kathy Beekman (both unaffiliated), Manuel Angel Cárdenas Alvízu, Carrie Burkhart (Univ. Illinois Chicago)
The National Science Foundation funded the first season of fieldwork, and the Mexican INAH preferred that we excavate one or two sites immediately instead of our original strategy of sampling a wide range of sites prior to focusing on two. I decided upon Llano Grande, a site located in a strategic pass along the western edge of the Tequila valleys. We produced a new map of the site, finding several new walls arranged into a layered defense system oriented towards the west, and quite a few more structures. The site is still quite small compared to other centers like Guachimonton, and its architecture is much more modest, but the walls appear to have received a great deal of emphasis. I suspect that this disproportionate investment is because it was a special purpose boundary site placed there by a higher political authority. Radiocarbon dates are still trickling in, but the current range of dates runs from A.D. 1-300, and the ceramics pertain to the Early Tabachines phase.
Our excavations focused on one structure argued to be part of an elite residential group, and three structures around the circular guachimonton complex. The former was interesting for its floorplan, visible on the surface, of a single large room with an appended room of much smaller size. This is essentially identical to the floorplan represented in many of the ceramic models found from this region, and I thought we might have a chance to link up with that database. Unfortunately, the structure turned out to be quite uninteresting, with few artifacts, and little surviving floor surface (we entered into rubble fill almost immediately after beginning excavating into the main room). The small annex room had an earth mix fill, however, that suggests to me different building techniques for different function rather than a later addition.
The excavations in the guachimonton were very interesting. Excavations in the patio revealed that this circle did not have a circular altar, like virtually all other examples. Instead, the circle was built around a high point in the underlying bedrock, a consolidated ashflow that had a bowl like depression carved in the exact center. This appears to correspond to the central altars depicted on the ceramic models of the circular architecture, where vertical poles were erected for ceremonies. The depression is too shallow to have supported such a post without help, and I think guidelines like those depicted in Diego Duran's book may have been used. Interestingly, this in turn suggests that the pole was not used for the volador ceremonies claimed by some working in Jalisco. The guidelines would have interfered with anyone carrying out a volador ceremony, in which acrobats descend from the top of the pole at the end of a rope - the victim would have struck the guidelines before reaching the bottom.
The excavations in the surrounding three structures revealed quite a bit. Each was dramatically distinct in terms of labor investment (one had multiple construction stages, another had one, the third was extremely simple in construction) and in artifact assemblages (one had few artifacts, another had several storage jars and bowls, and the third had a predominantly lithic assemblage). Elsewhere we have seen that the shaft tombs, often associated with the surrounding platforms, are argued to be linked to lineages. I suggest that we have different corporate groups (lineages) associated with each of the surrounding structures. The satellite structures of a guachimonton are part of a template and always present, but I suspect each lineage was responsible for constructing and maintaining a structure.
Year 2002 field season
Chris Beekman, Greg Tyndall (University Colorado Denver)
The 2002 field season was spent mapping the site of Santa Maria de las Navajas, with leftover funds from the National Science Foundation. Maps will be placed online eventually, but we greatly expanded the previous Weigand map and obtained a much better sense of the site layout. The TVRAP 2002 field season also established that the site of Navajas was a significant political center in its own right. It has five circles of various sizes, an 80+ meter long ballcourt, about 80 hectares of mapped area, multiple secondary centers in its orbit (La Florida, El Jaguey, and Los Coates), and dominance of a major transportation corridor linking the Tequila valleys and Lake Chapala to the southeast. It may be the second largest intact center of the Teuchitlan tradition known at present.
The bad news is that while we were down there, the site of Huitzilapa (made famous by the excavations there by Jorge Ramos and Lorenza López) was completely obliterated by bulldozers. The Tequila Herradura company is currently being investigated for their role in causing this damage. This should, once again, underline the extraordinary amount of destruction taking place in this area, and the need for immediate fieldwork.
Year 2003 field season
Chris Beekman, Greg Tyndall (University Colorado Denver), Sarah Jennings (Metcalfe Archaeological Consultants), Bruno Calgaro (University Colorado Boulder), Kathy Beekman
The National Science Foundation and FAMSI funded excavations that were carried out from January through May at Circle 1 and Circle 5, followed by just over 2 months in the laboratory. The excavations at Circle 5, a very small circle of the Teuchitlan tradition, exposed 6 platforms and the central altar. Our goal was to better understand the variation between structures, since the earlier 2000 season at Llano Grande had indicated that this variation may reflect different the responsibility of different social groups. Certainly the construction of the different structures followed quite different methods and rhythms, but variation in artifacts associated with each are under investigation. Greg Tyndall's Master's thesis will focus on the ceramic evidence recovered from the excavations, and how this may reflect feasting behavior. Interestingly, we found no evidence of a central posthole in the altar, which ceramic models and excavations at Llano Grande and Guachimonton had led to expect with virtually all circles. Our excavations at Circle 1, the largest circle at the site, were limited to the complete exposure of platform 7 (on the western edge of the circle) and a more limited exposure of platform 6 (the soutwestern platform). The construction method shared by the two platforms was quite peculiar, and radically different from that used in Circle 5. Ceramics recovered pertain to the Middle Tabachines phase (est. A.D. 300-500), but carbon samples have not yet been submitted for radiocarbon dating.
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