ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEQUENCE FROM TEHUACÁN, MEXICO
11,000 B.C. to A.D. 1500

(Tehuacán Page)

PHASE
COMMUNITY
PATTERN
SUBSISTENCE
TEHUACÁN VALLEY
POPULATION ESTIMATE
Venta Salada
phase (A.D. 700 - 1520)
Secular cities or
towns with religiously, politically,and economically affiliated centers
Full-time agriculture and irrigation as well as commerce Five thousand times original population
(60,000 - 120,000)
Palo Blanco
(200 B.C. - A.D. 700)
Sacred or ceremonial centers Full-time agriculture with irrigation One thousand times the original population
(12,000 - 24,000)
Ajalpán and St. María
(1500 - 200 B.C.)
Ceremonial centers or villages with temples with ceremonially affiliated villages
(100-300 village population)
Full-time agriculture using many hybred domesticates; irrigation (?) One hundred fifty times original population
(1800 - 3600)
Late Abejas, Purrón, and maybe early Ajalpan (3,000 - 1500 B.C.) Semipermanent villages composed of a number of microbands; pithouse village (?) Full-time agriculture planting an increasing amount of domesticates Forty times original population
(480 - 960)
Coxcatlán and and early Abejas phases (5000 - 3000 B.C.) Semisedentary microbands migrating by season but frequently separating into microband camps Plant collectors doing an increasing amount of agriculture due to new domestication Ten times original population
(120 - 240)
El Riego and early Coxcatlán (6800 - 5000 B.C.) Microbands that coalesce once a year to form seasonal macrobands Plant collectors who occasionally hunted and trapped Four times the original population
(48 - 96)
Ajuereado and early El Riego (11,000 or 10,000 - 7200 B.C.) Wandering microbands changing residence seasonally according to annual cycle Food collectors who hunted and trapped and gathered wild plants "Original population" three microbands of four to eight people
(12 - 24)
 
Source: Richard S. McNeish. 1964. "Ancient Mesoamerican Civilization."
Science 143; pp. 531 - 537.

Tim Roufs
Ancient Middle America