ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEQUENCE FROM TEHUACÁN, MEXICO |
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COMMUNITY PATTERN |
SUBSISTENCE |
TEHUACÁN VALLEY POPULATION ESTIMATE |
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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. |