TEMPLATE FOR NOTE TAKING (one class period)

Day: Monday Date: 09/06/2021 Name: Diego Burillo León

1. Key Question or Topic of Transition to early village life (The Early Formative
lecture: Period).

2. Main Points At the beginning of the class was important to remember

or Evidence: that as we have already seen, the begging of sedentarism
wasn’t necessarily a stable phase for human beings, due to
all the health problems and conflicts which emerged from
food production.

The first thing we saw was the chronology. Even when a

phase has a specific name, the dates can vary depending on
the region we are making research and their ceramic
technologies, but the general category is the following:
Early Formative (2,000 – 1,000 BCE), Middle Formative
(1,000 – 400 BCE), Late Formative (400 – 100 BCE) and
Terminal Formative (100 BCE – 250 CE). It is important
to mention that each of these phases possess sub-faces.

After the chronology, we started learning about what an

Early Formative house would have looked like, the first
thing with understood was the material of which houses
were made during this period, bajareque or bahareque, is
made from dirt, water, and many other things.
After discussing the material, we started looking to what
usually was inside the houses. Most of the houses had a
hearth (fogón), which later evolved into an oven, bell-
shaped pits for storing, and middens.

Once discussed the main components of an Early

Formative’s house we moved on to pottery. During this
period human beings started experimenting with different
forms to create objects such as, jars and bowls. Most of the
pottery made during this period tended to have a brownish
color due to the aerobic environment in which were made,
also all the ceramic was handmade.
Even when most of the ceramic of the Early Formative
was utilitarian in specific zones, such as the Soconusco or
the Olmec region, we can find fancier ceramic with
decorations.
Mesoamericans also crafted figurines (specially women
across their different stages) and musical instruments.
3. Expand with your notes
from the readings

4. Vocabulary to learn Wattle and daub: A traditional material used for building
and made from interwoven sticks and twigs covered with
mud or clay.

Middens: Old dump for domestic waste.

Hearth: The floor of a fireplace.

Wasters: Weak, burned or not useful Pieces of pottery.

5. Question(s) to ask: Had people already domesticated animals during this

period?

Is there any true evidence of religion during this period?

Did people already have specific roles or did most of them

realized various activities for the community?

6. Reflect: how does this I really enjoyed learning about how a house from the Early
conflict with my current Formative Period was, because architecture is something
knowledge? fascinating to me, but what amazed me was how the
houses were built, because I have seen houses made from
wattle and daub in some indigenous territories in Chiapas
and Yucatán, and I knew the materials and technique were
quite old, I never thought they were this old, it seemed
spectacular for me to understand since when people in
Mesoamerica started building houses this way, and how
the technique and material is still used nowadays.

Talking about the houses, seeing the size of the bell-

shaped pits was incredible, I used to think that people
stored their products in a different way, and understanding
how they kept their things in a large pit was something I
hadn’t think about.

Something related to pottery I didn’t know was how

anaerobic or anaerobic environment can even change the
color of the pottery you are cooking, now I am
understanding how challenging is to create a beautiful
piece of pottery. Speaking of fancier pottery, I’m starting

7. Reflect: What knowledge
can I use from my other
classes or experience to
better understand the
material?
8. Restate verbal instruction
on homework or
assignments
to understand the huge important the Soconusco region
had, and it is amazing that even in Chiapas we are never
taught about that region, neither in ancient times nor in
more recent ones.
For this class I believe seeing and knowing about the
process of wattle an daub helped to understand much
better how houses were built during this period, also
knowledges from the archaeology class like the concepts
of middens and wasters helped me to understand better the
material, finally knowing about geography was useful to
locate where the Soconusco and the Olmec region are
located.
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 TEMPLATE FOR NOTE TAKING (one class period)

Day: Wednesday Date: 09/08/2021 Name: Diego Burillo León

1. Key Question or Topic of The Early Formative
lecture:

2. Main Points At the beginning of the class, we started discussing some

or Evidence: main features of the Early Formative Period, such as a
centralized political authority (chief), hereditary status
distinctions, regional politics (networks of politically
linked communities), redistributive economy, prestige
goods and chiefly competitions. We also distinguish a
small-scale chiefdom and a paramount chiefdom.

Later, we started understanding how during this period the

inequality between people growth, by the heredity status
and prestige goods people had, but also by monumental
constructions (which required a good administration and
organization, also designated specific functions and ranks).

The next slide provided more information about this

period, such as: dense farming villages, elaboration of
ceramics, earliest evidence for the construction of large
structures, evidence for shared characteristics of
Mesoamerican religion and ideology, and many more.

Once we ended discussing the main characteristics of the

period, we focused on a specific region, Oaxaca, this
region is divided mainly in the central valley, Mixteca
Baja, Mixteca Alta and Mixteca Costa. There is an
important region, with semi-arid clime and widest
agriculture area, known as the Y shaped valley of Oaxaca,
where San Jose Mogote (the biggest and most important
site of the time, with 70 hectares and about 1000 people) is
located.
The Lower Río Verde Valley, lots of the most important
developments of the Oaxacan coast happened. The region
was extremely productive. People of this area spoke
chatino (dialect of zapotec) and one of the most important
sites of the area is Charco Redondo.

Then, we talked about the Espiridion Phase (1900 – 1400

B.C.E.) where in the central valley, specifically in San
Jose Mogote, you can find house floor and bell-shaped
 pits. During the Tierra Largas Phase (1400 - 1150 B.C.E)
in the central valley there was around 17 known
settlements, small villages in the Elta Valley, simple
bajareque structures, hearths, and activity areas on patios.

After that we started discussing about the San José Mogota

Phase, and how this site started to specialized production
(specially mirrors which were exchanged in distant
regions) and social differentiation by residences
constructed on platforms, largest houses with imported
goods, and differential access to resources. Also, we
started looking at the influence of Olmec iconography, but
only in some sectors of San Jose.

At the end of the class, we talked about the Mayan region,

which includes the highland and lowland region, we
discussed about the products people had access to in those
regions and some important places. At last, we talked
about the Gulf Coast region, its division in huasteca
(north), Totonacapan (center) and Olmec (south), but also
about the climate and natural conditions of the places.

3. Expand with your notes Studying Mesoamerica’s earliest pottery is relevant for
from the readings improving the understandings of the relationships between
technology, communal activity, and networks of exchange
in the origins of farming villages and political complexity.
Barra pottery is remarkably sophisticated, is often
decorated, and is frequently evocative of plants such as
gourds, and others have suggested that these ceramics
were instrumental in competitive feasting that promoted
social complexity in the Soconusco. A few nearby sites in
the lower Río Verde Valley contain Early Formative
materials, and future work should help to better
understandings of early ceramics in the region.

Tlacuache ceramics share with the highland Oaxacan

ceramics a vessel form ratio that differs from the more
decorated Barra tradition. Both the Tlacuache and Tierras
Largas groups contain fewer phytomorphic vessels than
does the Barra assemblage. Tecomates and probable
phytomorphs are present at La Consentida, even when they
are rare. Important differences between the Tlacuache and
Tierras Largas groups include the higher percentages of
bottles and tecomates. As the higher frequency of bottles
and the presence of grater bowls suggests, the Tlacuache
assemblage is more formally diverse than Tierras Largas.
 Tlacuache ceramics generally lack the red interior designs
of the Tierras Largas assemblage. Additionally, rocker
stamping found on some Tierras Largas vessels is absent
from the Tlacuache group. Both groups share the use of
red paint and/or slip for exterior decoration. 3 Ceramics
from one La Consentida midden consisted almost entirely
of jars, most of which are circular in form. The rapid
deposition of the context is indicated by cross-fitting
fragments from as much as 60 cm apart in excavated
depth. Undecorated semispherical bowls from this same
midden are also like Tierras Largas examples. Neither the
jars nor the bowls are very diagnostic Early Formative
vessels, however. Tlacuache jars are also like some from
Tlatilco.

Obsidian sourcing results from La Consentida provide an

opportunity for comparison with other early Oaxacan sites.
For example, Blomster and Glascock determined that
during later Early Formative communities in the
Nochixtlán Valley imported their obsidian from several
sources, including Paredón, Otumba, Guadalupe Victoria,
El Chayal, and Ixtepeque. Zeitlin noted that obsidian used
in the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec during the Early
Formative included material from Guadalupe Victoria and
the Guatemalan source of El Chayal. The greater
importance of La Consentida on Guadalupe Victoria over
Paredón material is therefore consistent with the site’s
early date.

4. Vocabulary to learn Chatino: Language spoken in the south of Oaxaca.

Iconography: Visual images and symbols used in a work

of art.

5. Question(s) to ask: Why does people usually skip this period when talking
about the pre-Columbian history of Mexico?

Did mirrors had a religious connotation related to the god

Tezcatlipoca? Or did that connotation appear later?

How does Oaxaca still having similar boundaries as the

one they had during that period?

6. Reflect: how does this At the beginning of the class, I started understanding how
conflict with my current a society can become inequal, by different aspects, and
knowledge?
7. Reflect: What knowledge
can I use from my other
classes or experience to
better understand the
material?
8. Restate verbal instruction
on homework or
assignments
those aspects such as power, prestige goods or
monumental constructions (which I never thought had a
great importance for an inequality society) are excluded
most of the time, because generally teachers would simply
explain that a specific society suffered from inequality, but
they don’t mention the reason of this phenomenon, also
some teachers don’t even bother on explaining this
transcendental characteristic.
Learning about Oaxaca was like a journey to the unknown,
because as well as other topics teachers forget to talk about
this region or they simply talk a bit about it, but now I’m
starting to realize how big and distinctive this area is, and
that it needs a specific division in Mesoamerica, due to its
different cultures, sites, and languages. One thing that
amazed me was the fact that the boundaries of the state
have been almost the same during many years.
For this class, I believe knowledge from Archaeology such
as the importance of ceramics and trade between specific
cultures, and the concept of chieftain learned in cultura y
Sociedad helped me to better understand the material. Also
the knowledge I have of geography helped me to locate
much better specific areas such as the Mayan lands in
Mexico and the Gulf Coast Region, because I have lived in
those places, or at least near them, and therefore I do know
some things about those regions like the weather,
landscape or materials made in those places.
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