Highland Mesoamerican Early Preclassic

By Peter van Rossum

4000 BP - 2600 BP

Follows the Highland Mesoamerican Archaic and precedes the Late Highland Mesoamerican Preclassic.

Volcanic highlands stretching from central Mexico through southeastern Mexico, southern Guatemala, and northern Honduras.

Much of this period is characterized by an ill-defined set of characteristics widely, but inaccurately, referred to as the "Olmec" style. Ceramics come in a wide range of forms including globular jars, bottles, and tecomates; decoration includes slips, grooving, carving, incising and rocker-stamping. "Olmec" design elements include double-line- break, fire serpent, were-jaguar and paw-wing motifs. Handmade figurines are abundant, coming in a variety of forms, often with slanted or perforated eyes. Lithics include grinding stones, chipped stone tools such as knives, scrapers and small, often stemless projectile points. Both chipping and core-blade technique used to make cutting tools from obsidian. Certain jade and ceramic figures depict baby faced individuals with down-turned mouths. Rectangular wattle and daub houses, often arranged around open plazas. Settlement patterns often have a settlement hierarchy with civic-ceremonial platform mounds appearing in important sites.

Basin of Mexico, South-Central Highlands, Valley of Oaxaca.

Chalcatzingo, San Jose Mogote, Teopantecuanitlán, Tlatilco

The period was one of fluctuating climatic conditions. Early on, many areas experienced a climatic optimum with warmer, wetter conditions. By approximately 3000 BP these patterns became more similar to current conditions with colder, drier winters and warmer, wetter summers. Temperature is variable over such a large area but tends to stay in a relatively mild range of 15 to 30º C. Annual rainfall is also quite variable, ranging from approximately 500 mm. in the driest areas to over 3000 mm. in the wettest.

The highlands generally consist of high (over 800 m above sea level) plains and river valleys, surrounded by steep volcanic mountains which often rise to heights of over 2000 m. Settlements tended to concentrate near lower river basins but also exploited resources found in higher elevation ecozones. Unique to the Basin of Mexico is an extremely large (1000 km²) lake system.

The region is dominated by volcanic soil and geologic formations. Soils tend to be fertile, loamy soils highly suitable to simple agriculture. Important resources to be found in various regions include lithic deposits of basalt and obsidian for utilitarian goods, and jade, which was a prized source material for high-quality status items.

Plains and river basins tend to be dominated by moderately scrubby, grassy vegetation with oak, pine, and coniferous forests found at higher elevations. This contrasting environment supplied a wide range of wild plant and animal resources for use by the ancient inhabitants.

Highland regions tend to contain a range of site sizes from villages containing approximately 1000 people to small hamlets containing only one, or a few, nuclear families. In most cases, a settlement hierarchy of three or four tiers of sites exists which likely represents an integrated political unit totaling 1000-3000 individuals. In general, the largest site of such units was the political, religious, and social center of the system.

The majority of settlements are located in proximity to fertile agricultural soils and stable water supplies. Sites that are exceptions to this rule are often located near an important commercial source or close to a natural inter-regional communication route. The majority of the population was relatively similar in social status, but higher status elites could be found at some of the larger sites. Larger communities often contain earthen platform mounds, sometimes faced with stone blocks, which served as substructures for civic-ceremonial buildings. Public structures at some sites may have been laid out to 8° west of north, a common alignment in many Mesoamerican sites.

Residential structures tended to be constructed in a rectangular form using wattle and daub construction for the walls. Occasionally, stone blocks or adobe bricks were used to create a low basal wall upon which the wattle and daub construction was placed. Residences of better construction and with lime-plaster walls have been identified as probable elite structures in some sites. Residences tended to range in size from 10 to 40 m², but larger structures are known. Internally, residences were subdivided into a small number of rooms which probably served to separate certain household activities. Residences appear both singly and in clusters of three to five structures oriented around an open patio area. Storage pits and burials are relatively common features in and around residential structures.

The majority of settlements contained only a few tens or hundreds of individuals, but in all regions sites with populations nearing 1000 people can be identified. Information is scanty but the majority of individuals who lived to adulthood probably died prior to the age of 40, although some older individuals have been identified. In those areas with evidence of social ranking it appears that higher status individuals had more access to meat than lower status individuals.

The major subsistence activity of all regions was agriculture. Most agriculture was simple rainfall farming, but there is limited evidence to suggest the use of more intensive irrigation, terracing, and chinampa farming in certain areas during the latter part of the phase. Although agricultural crops formed the backbone of subsistence, a wide variety of wild plant and animals were exploited as well.

Wild grasses, fruits, nuts, and cacti were collected from the surrounding countryside to supplement the diet. Hunted and trapped animals included deer, rabbit, peccary, fish, birds, waterfowl, and reptiles. In addition, insects such as crickets and water insects were consumed as well.

The primary domestic plants of the Mesoamerican subsistence economy were maize, beans, squash, and chilies. The combination of maize and beans provided populations with a plant based source of dietary protein (singly, neither contains all the necessary enzymes of a complete protein). This plant source of nutrition was supplemented by the domestication of the dog and probably the turkey as the only sources of domesticated meat for these populations.

Mesoamerican peoples produced a very wide range of items for use in everyday activities as well as for use in important socio-religious contexts. The major materials for their implements were textile, wood, bone, stone and clay.

The primary agricultural utensil was the wooden digging stick, known as the coa, which was used to break up the soil and create holes for the planting of seeds. Other important organic utensils such as clothing, netting, and basketry were made of plant fibers, but due to their fragile nature few examples of such artifacts dating to this time period have been recovered. Clay ceramic vessels were made in a great variety of forms to serve the population's cooking, serving, and storage needs. Characteristic forms include globular jars, tecomates, bottles, flat- and round-bottomed bowls, and plates. Vessels were decorated through the use of slips, incising, grooving, carving, and rocker stamping. Important nonutilitarian objects made of fired clay were small handmade figurines, which represented a wide range of natural and unnatural, human and animal forms. The vast majority of ceramic vessels and figurines were probably made within the individual communities. Locally available cherts were made into a range of scrapers, knives, and projectile points; local and exotic obsidian was used to make a variety of cutting implements by using both a chipped stone and core-blade technology.

A wide array of objects and decorative techniques were undoubtedly used as social markers and for general aesthetic appearances. Materials such as shell, jade, and magnetite, which could be worked into items of personal adornment, have been found at locations very distant from their sources. These items were often worked into beads and objects which could be worn around the neck. They were probably one means of differentiating social status in these early societies. Although direct physical evidence has not survived, an analysis of figurines suggests the use of tattooing and body painting as well. A permanent form of personal adornment used by some segments of the population was the artificial deformation of the head. While the reasoning behind this practice may have been purely aesthetic, it is more likely that this was a way of differentiating hereditary, high-status individuals from other segments of society.

The basic economic unit was the nuclear or extended family, which produced the majority of the food and objects needed for daily existence. Some objects, however, were obtained through exchange with other individuals, through reciprocal exchanges, or possibly through elites by means of some form of redistribution. Elites do not seem to have been extremely powerful at this time, but it is likely that a small amount of labor and/or tribute could be extracted from the commoner population. The evidence suggests that elites also served as important links in the pan-Mesoamerican, long distance exchange networks. Exchange of precious goods and elite knowledge was a primary function of these networks, but obsidian, which was highly prized by all segments of society passed through these networks as well. Objects of jade, shell, magnetite, and obsidian have been found hundreds of kilometers from their sources. The objects and information that flowed through these networks served as a basis of elite power, and people were attracted to leaders who could successfully maintain a regular flow of such goods.

Within individual households there appears to have been a division of labor along gender lines with women more often associated with domestic tasks such as food and textile preparation whereas men show associations with tasks that occurred outside the household. Individual households produced the majority of their daily necessities, but it appears that part-time specialists existed for the manufacture of certain ceramic and lithic items. In addition, a small number of craft specialists existed for the production of high status goods such as magnetite mirrors and jade carvings. The evidence indicates that these individuals were often attached specialists who may themselves have been part of the elite class of society. There is little evidence to suggest the existence of markets during this period; the majority of goods were probably obtained by reciprocity or redistribution.

Early in the phase, access to goods seems to have been basically egalitarian, but over time elites came to increasingly control long-distance exchange networks and the goods that flowed through this system. Outside of these items, there is also evidence to indicate that elites had preferential access to meat.

The nuclear family was the fundamental unit of social organization in Preclassic society. Above this level, there is evidence to suggest that populations were organized along descent lines into lineage based organizations. Over time, there is increasing evidence of the rise of hereditary social status in these lineages. In some societies, there is evidence for matrilineality; other groups seem to display patrilineality. In either case, lineage exogamy appears to have been practiced with either matrilocal or patrilocal postmarital residence.

Early in the period, there is little indication of anything beyond egalitarian political structure. By the end of the phase, however, social and political ranking becomes the norm. Analysis of settlement patterns indicates that the degree of social ranking varied between societies, but even in the most ranked groups, true social stratification does not seem to exist. Local and regional political organization was focused on a relatively small segment of society with few decision making levels. High ranking elites were probably charged with organizing community-wide construction and ritual activities, managing external political relationships, and structuring extralocal economic ties. The political structure is probably best described as a weak chiefdom where both ascribed and achieved statuses were equally important in determining adult sociopolitical status.

In general, there is little direct evidence of intracommunity conflict. There is no good evidence of fortified sites at this time, but identification of burned civic-ceremonial structures may indicate conflict (although it is equally likely that this burning was prompted by the communities themselves as period ending events). However, based on ethnographic analogy and limited archaeological evidence, it is likely that competition over human and natural resources existed.

Evidence of religious beliefs is restricted to analyses of burial patterns and iconographic decoration of objects. Both the jaguar and the serpent seem to have played prominent roles in iconography throughout Mesoamerica at this time. The exact interpretation of these depictions is unlikely, but they may be associated with (1) totemic ancestors of social groups; (2) Mesoamerican beliefs in shamanistic companion spirits; and (3) multi-faceted deities associated with fertility, earth, and/or rainfall. Analysis also suggests the existence of crocodilian imagery which may relate to the Mesoamerican world view whereby land was believed to rest on the back of a crocodile floating in a primordial sea. The discovery of split-faced masks of half-live and half-dead faces seems to indicate the existence of the later Mesoamerican belief in the duality of life and the universe. Objects associated with the autosacrifice of human blood were probably used in ceremonies where humans fulfilled their pact with the supernatural world by feeding the deities the human blood they needed to continue their existence and thus maintain the world.

Full-time religious practitioners are unlikely to have existed at this time. The increasing association of elites with civic-ceremonial architecture and the implements needed for ritual events indicates that elite socio-political leaders also served important roles in the religious life of the community.

The presence of civic-ceremonial architecture and other objects leads to the conclusion that certain religious ceremonies were carried out with the participation of a large portion of the community. It is likely that dance societies, feasting and sacrificial offerings of plants, animals, and human blood played important roles in these events. In many sites, broken figurines have been found as part of the general habitation debris leading to the suggestion that they served important functions at ceremonies for individual households and lineages.

Mesoamerican groups used a wide range of expressive media on which to depict their artwork. Important religious or political events were sometimes carved or painted onto cliff faces, cave walls, and large stone monuments. Exotic goods such as jade and shell were often incised with mythico-religious symbolism while large pieces of magnetite were ground down to produce concave mirrors which could be worn around the neck. Ceramics were carved, painted and incised to display a variety of geometric and iconographic designs while figurines were formed by hand to depict humans and animals engaged in everyday activities or in oddly deformed shapes which likely had some religious significance.

In the majority of sites, individuals were buried near, or under, the residences in which they lived. This form of burial may relate to beliefs about the importance of ancestral spirits. Grave goods ranged from nothing to fairly elaborate offerings of ceramics and exotic status goods. In a few instances a single jade bead was placed in the mouth of the deceased, this may be related to beliefs about an afterlife passage to the underworld or possibly as a means of providing sustenance to the soul.

The major tradition summary is from “Highland Mesoamerican Early Preclassic,” by Peter van Rossum from the Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 5, Peter N. Peregrine and Melvin Ember, eds. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2001. We thank Peter N. Peregrine for bibliographic suggestions. Sarah Berry and John Beierle wrote the synopsis in 2008. The indexing notes were written by John Beierle in 2008.