Keeping It Coastal: Classic Period Politics Along Mexico’s Southern Gulf Lowlands

Speaker: Dr. Philip J. Arnold III

On February 24, we welcome back Dr. Philip “Flip” Arnold, to discuss Classic Period politics in the Southern Veracruz region.

Tuxtlas Statuette

The Southern Gulf Coast of Mexico is best known as home to the Formative Period (1500-500 BC) Olmecs, a precocious culture celebrated for its megalithic artwork. Less established, but no less important, are the political ebbsandflows that marked this region during the heyday of the subsequent Classic Period (AD 300-1000).This presentation charts these Classic Period developments through archaeological, iconographic, and epigraphic data. Previously identified linkages between La Mojarra Monument #1 and the Tuxtlas Statuette are further supported via more recent data from Totocapan and Matacanela, while fieldwork at Teotepec and La Perla del Golfo suggests interaction with other Classic Veracruz cultures up and down the southern Mexican Gulf Lowlands.This new understanding demonstrates that the region’s cultural character, often

La Mojarra Monument #1

Dr. Philip Arnold

attributed to outside forces such as the Lowland Maya or Teotihuacan in Highland Mexico, results instead from an autochthonous (indigenous) development. This appreciation, in turn, offers a more nuanced understanding of the unique expressions that together constitute Classic Veracruz culture.

Our speaker, Philip J. Arnold III, is a Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. His archaeological research focuses on the political and economic development of southern Veracruz, Mexico, spanning a period of approximately 3000 years. Dr. Arnold is the author and editor of numerous publications. His most recent volume, coedited with Lourdes Budar, is Arqueología de Los Tuxtlas: Antiguos Paisajes, Nuevas Miradas (2016: Universidad Veracruzana). His faculty webpage is https://www.luc.edu/anthropology/faculty/arnold.shtml .

The CAS will meet at 3:00pm for a social period, with the lecture beginning at 3:30pm at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington. Meetings are open to the public and free of charge.

Members' Day

The January CAS meeting was also officially Members Day which involves the election of officers and the election of 1/3 of the Board of Directors. The slate was elected with the status appellation of Emeritus awarded to Jacqueline Leipold.

Mesoamerican/Ancient Southwestern Trade

Mike Ruggeri Talk in January Explored Evidence of Trade Over Modern Borders

The weather outside was frightful but the company inside was delightful. Twenty three doughty armchair travelers shrugged off Chicagoland subzero temperatures. (The record for Chicago happened to be 27°!) Bad weather would get worse but the CAS carried on with a room filled with members.

Trade ln Ancient Mesoamerica
Michael Ruggeri, retired Professor of History from City Colleges of Chicago, engaged us with a detailed slide show in an area of his expertise in Mesoamerican trade routes.

The various archaeological sites of the U.S. Southwest are always a source of intense interest. Current events may have intensified interest. Mike Ruggeri explained how theobromine, a component remnant of cacao, found in special drinking vessels from various sites in Pueblo Bonito was evidence of usage of chocolate.

Chocolate was the drink of Mesoamerican royalty and cacao beans were also used as currency by Mesoamericans. As such, why would the Mesoamericans want to use it as a trade item? The suggestion is that the desire for turquoise was strong enough to allow cacao use as a trade item. Seems like a sweet deal.

Archaeological exploration has uncovered extensive evidence of trade at Paquime (a/k/a Casas Grande) and also aviculture with evidence of more than 800 macaws and parrots. The acquisition of exotic birds, e.g. “scarlet macaws”, seems to have been for sacrificial rituals. Such ceremonies must have consumed a considerable portion of the economy as evidenced by macaw and parrot aviculture and the sacrifice of hundreds of birds at Paquime.

The excellence of Mike’s presentation was absolutely rewarding, as was our first postmeeting informal dinner at Prairie Moon Restaurant.

Escaping the Cold

If you took one of those advertised Mayan Riviera vacation deals, offered to escape the Chicago vortex, you might have found yourself bored at about midweek. If it happens to you, do what a few relaxing CAS members did recently. Hire a taxi or a van for a day trip to the important Maya site, Coba (including a Yucatecan lunch). With a local guide and a chauffeur pumping the pedals of your tricycle/carriage, it is more fun than a theme park. You could take an aerial wire flight over a patch of jungle, too. Joe & Marilyn Shidle, Deb & Bob Stelton, Beverly Bucur and Alan Brew shared the cost of a van. Five of us sat on a log and timed Joe Shidle climbing the highest pyramid in the Yucatan; it was 7 minutes up and 7 minutes down. Congratulations Joe!

“Keeping it Coastal:

Classic Period Politics Along Mexico’s Southern Gulf Lowlands”

IS TOPIC ON February 24 IN EVANSTON

Professor Philip J. Arnold, PhD will present “Keeping it Coastal: Classic Period Politics Along Mexico’s Southern Gulf Lowlands” on Sunday, February 24 in the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Avenue, Evanston.  This month’s lecture for the Chicago Archaeological Society/CAS begins at 3:30pm, with refreshments and socializing starting earlier, at 3:00pm.  All CAS meetings are free and open to the public.

Philip J. Arnold III is a Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. His archaeological research focuses on the political and economic development of southern Veracruz, Mexico, spanning a period of approximately 3000 years. He is the author and editor of numerous publications; his most recent volume, co-edited with Lourdes Budar, is Arqueología de Los Tuxtlas: Antiguos Paisajes, Nuevas Miradas (2016: Universidad Veracruzana).

Dr. Arnold’s talk will chart Classic Period developments through archaeological, iconographic, and epigraphic data of the Veracruz, Mexico area.  His fieldwork at Teotepec and La Perla del Golfo suggests interaction with other Classic Veracruz cultures up and down the southern Mexican Gulf Lowlands. This new understanding demonstrates that the region’s cultural character, often attributed to outside forces such as the Lowland Maya or Teotihuacan in Highland Mexico, results instead from  indigenous development. To learn more, join us on February 24 at an open meeting of the Chicago Archaeological Society at the Evanston Public Library beginning at 3:00pm.

For more information, go to: http://www.chicagoarchaeologicalsociety.com/p/events.html.

Invitation to Members

Our December meeting and luncheon featured member Claire Yashar who presented an account of her journey to Exploring Cappadocia, Turkey to a receptive audience.

Your fellow CAS members are anxious to hear about your ventures into the world of archaeology. Extensive prepping is unnecessary. A few slides will suffice. Make it a show and tell project with a brief Q & A opportunity. For a member’s 2019 presentation Bob Stelton will document A Mule Safari to El Mirador in Guatemala.

His presentation captures the excitement and spirit that confronted such travel only a few years ago.

Mesoamerican/ancient trade routes

Members of the CAS are fortunate to have Mike Ruggeri as their guide to the past at the January 27th CAS Meeting, His knowledge and understanding of the past seems to be           inexhaustible.

To enjoy a sampling of Mike you can open  Mike Ruggeri’s Website: Ancient  Americas.

Officers and Board 2019

Happy New Year

Members and friends. Please keep in mind that the January Meeting celebrates you on Members Day. “You get to throw the rascals out” because first and foremost it’s Election Day for the CAS. Then you get to execute the meeting as you please, or you can sit back and enjoy an armchair journeying into the past.

The present CAS leadership has prepared an Officer and Director Ballot slate for member approval. It will be presented to the members at the beginning of the January meeting. Included on the slate are directors whose term has expired.

The CAS Board of Directors consists or 12 members and is divided into 3 groups. Each group stands for reelection every third year. Tasks confronting Directors are essentially policy decisions.

The official election slate is printed elsewhere in this edition of the Codex. The annual date attached to each name indicates office year expiration.

 □ President

    Raymond Young 2019

□ Vice President

    Lucy Kennedy 2019

□ Secretary & Newsletter Editor

    Robert Stelton 2019

□ Treasurer

    Michael Ruggeri 2023

□ Director

    Judith Greene 2023

□ Director     

    Peter Greene 2023

□ Director     

    Jeanne Jesernik 2023

□ Director     

    Jacqueline Leipold 2023

□ Director 

    Doreen Stelton 2023

□ Director 

    Ann Wilson-Dooley 2023

====================================

Director Sally Campbell 2021

Director Edith Yma Sumc Young 2021

Director David Zucker 2021

Director Delano Busczynski 2022

Director Lynn Miller 2022

Director Jeanne Zasadil 2022

Director Mary Ann Bloom 2022

Effective January 31, 2019

Discovering a new world with the Aztecs and Mike Ruggeri

The recent arrival of a  so-called caravan of  thousands of self-identified immigrants (with a threat of future caravans) has identified an area on the U. S. /Mexican frontier that has been a region of settlement and trade for centuries.

The northwest corner of Mexico includes that nation’s largest state, Chihuahua and its principal city, Ciudad Chihuahua.

Diorama of  Paquime archaeological site

Within the state is the important archaeological site of Casas Grandes (AKA Paquime). There are as well several communities of Americans who have settled in   Chihuahua but maintain their US Citizenship.

The state of Sonora, west of Chihuahua, was a gateway to San Diego for several centuries.

Archaeological exploration has found definitive evidence in the American southwest of Mexican contact between the pre-American cultures and ancient Mexican cultures, e.g. chocolate and Macaw remains. 

Pochteca

In ancient times within the social order of the Aztecs (and possibly other cultures) there arose a group of traveling entrepreneurs who have been identified as pochteca. In the fragmented history of the pochteca that has come down to us by way of archaeology, history and literature, we meet face to face with traveling adventurers wearing the masque of Marco Polo or even Jonathan Swift’s Lemuel Gulliver!

Archaeological exploration spanning the farthest reaches of the New World reveal a diversity of trade goods.

Within the range of the Aztecs the pochteca must have contributed to the diversity of ancient life.

Readers may have made first-contact with the Aztec and a pochteca, by name Chicóme-Xochitl Tliléctic Mixtli (translates to Seven-Flower Dark Cloud), via Gary Jennings’s mammoth novel Aztec.

Trading control over much of northern Europe was a monopoly of the Hanseatic League that spanned the 13th and 15th centuries.

Mike Ruggeri, Professor of Mesoamerican Studies, will speak at our January lecture on the importance of long distance trade   networks between Mesoamerica and the Ancient Southwest.
As of late, what once was of signal importance e.g. economic history such as the Hanseatic League, has given way to trivia and nonsense. Perhaps Mike can turn our attention to how much trading impacts have influenced all cultures. He will help answer questions on these aspects of the history of the ancient trade routes;

1)  When and how did this ancient trade networks expand into the   Ancient Southwest from Mesoamerica?

2) Where did items of trade reach the Ancient Southwest and how far did Mesoamerican trade items reach into ancient North America.

3) What were the trade items that reached the Ancient Southwest from Mesoamerica, and what did the Mesoamericans receive in return.

4) How did trader items reach their destinations across vast desert territories into Ancient North America?

These are only a few of the sparkling facets of a compelling history that places before us the story of the pochteca and the routes they took to reach into the Ancient Southwest.

You don’t want to miss this meeting. Bring a friends and join the fun at our post-meeting casual dinner at the Prairie Moon.

For more open: http://mikeruggerisaztlanworld.tumblr.com 

A pochteca as displayed on the Florentine Codex.

the palimpsest

I have just received my copy of News & Notes , the Oriental Institute  Members’ Magazine.

One of the benefits of membership in the Oriental Institute is a subscription the receiving News & Notes, its Quarterly journal. The magazine features supporting    information that regularly expands on special museum exhibits and often alerts visitors to special events.

Throughout the year there are a series of Members’ Lecture Series that are free and open to the public. Please see calendar for details of lectures featured in February and March 2019.

On February 6, 2019 Brian Rose, University of Pennsylvania, speaks about his fieldwork over the course of the last twenty-five years, and his strategies for presenting findings to both the public and the scholarly community. Brian places his own work in historiographic perspective with a focus on how regional, national, and global developments have shaped research agendas.
Issue 240 of the magazine is a concise introduction to Nubia.

> Bob Stelton, editor