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2018 Final Performance Report, November 1, 2012 June 30, 2018: National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl

Title of Project: Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity Name of Project Directors: Mary D. Pohl (FSU), with project co-directors Christopher L. von Nagy (UNR and FSU) and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (UNAM).

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Type of Report: National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant

Final Performance Report, November 1, 2012 – June 30, 2018

Grant Number: RZ-51497-12

Title of Project: Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity

Name of Project Directors:

Mary D. Pohl (FSU), with project co-directors Christopher L. von Nagy (UNR and FSU) and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (UNAM).

Name of Grantee Institution: Florida State University

Date: September 30, 2018

Report authored by Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl

Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

Accomplishments

Major goals

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded Florida State University (FSU) a collaborative research grant for the period November 1, 2012 through June 30, 2018. The Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico grant co-directed by Mary D. Pohl (FSU), Christopher L. von Nagy (FSU/UNR), and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (UNAM) has several primary goals: 1) to promote close collaborative research in the Humanities between US peers and Mexican scholars at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico); 2) to explore the nature of the early ritual polity, public art, and early urbanism in Mesoamerica, focusing on the important Guerrero Formative community of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán (frequently known in scholarly and popular literature through Oxtotitlán Cave, a component of the larger site) and through close comparison to adjacent major Formative Guerrero sites (such as Teopantecuanitlán) that together form a chain of prominent Early to Middle Formative polities linking the Central Mexican highlands with the Pacific and Gulf coasts; 3) to closely compare relevant data from Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán to that of other early first millennium BCE urban communities, in particular Chalcatzingo in the Central Highlands and La Venta, Tabasco on the Gulf Coast where we have extensively worked, too; 4) and to bilingually disseminate and publish results through traditional print, film, and innovative digital approaches for scholarly, educational, and lay community use.

Through the course of research funded by this grant, we focused on two major regions in Mesoamerica: mid-highland Guerrero where Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán is located amid a sharp karstic landscape of ridge and valley, and lowland Tabasco where La Venta is located amid the remnants of interplay between coast and river delta. Both sites provide significant testament to the Mesoamerica-wide Early to Middle Formative emergence of

1 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) the Olmec art style (ca. 1400–400) and, of significance to us, the foundational development of particularly Mesoamerican political and economic systems of kingship and of the cultural and religious understandings undergirding these.

We have long-standing research in both regions. During the first year of the grant, we began research in the La Venta area where we intended to develop a new cycle of research arising out of our earlier research at the site of San Andrés (also known as Barí 1) part of the exurban area of La Venta, a component we term Lower La Venta where ancient habitational sites lie along ancient river channels adjacent to La Venta. There we sought to better delineate the development of the lowland Olmec city. Due to developing security and political concerns, we refocused work to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán during the second and subsequent years of this grant. In 2012, we had begun a research project in Guerrero parallel to our ongoing Tabasco research, with interrelated theme.

Our goals remained substantially the same at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Close research into the nature of two Olmec period polities, hundreds of kilometers apart and located in very different physical and biogeographic contexts yet integrated into extended spheres of symbolic and economic exchange, provides us with a privileged vantage point from which to consider the key themes we posed in our original proposal: the interplay of symbol, monumentality, and emergent writing; a ritual economy and attendant economic specialization as fundamental to emerging Mesoamerican urban systems and polities while grounded in domestic concerns; the particular and fundamental Mesoamerican cosmological conceptions that shape the rhetoric and structure of power in Mesoamerica’s earliest cities and polities; the question of centralization of power in Mesoamerica’s earliest kingdoms.

In La Venta’s ca. 800 BCE development as a powerful kingdom—and perhaps singular power—in the Sotavento region of the Mexican Gulf Coast, we see a flexion point and preeminent engine in Mesoamerica’s inexorable first millennium BCE transformation from a geography of largely villages to a landscape of cities and polities. While the tropical lowland towns and cities of Mexico’s Gulf Coast were particularly precocious, Guerrero, too, saw sharp transformation. Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán is not a small site. Nor are immediately adjacent sites located in the Chilapa-Zitlala valley, in which Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán is located. Nor is Teopantecuanitlán, connected to Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán over a difficult to traverse but ancient route binding a long chain of Formative cities and towns from Chalcatzingo to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, a corridor perhaps extending all the way down to the Pacific coast. Like Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, people at

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Teopantecuanitlán deployed monumentality to center a town—perhaps even emergent city—composed of a striking series of domestic terraces that climb encircling hillsides. Teopantecuanitlán’s monumentality is architectural and sculptural recalling statements of social power at a plethora of contemporary emerging centers. Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán’s monumentality is strikingly and almost uniquely painterly.

There is still much to learn in Guerrero. A changing security situation there attenuated our field research efforts after 2015, though fortuitously when we needed to refocus on laboratory analysis. Modern Mexico continues to undergo difficult and challenging social changes. Particularly emblematic of these changes and attendant struggles is highland Guerrero. Quite close to our site lies the small teacher’s college in Ayotzinapa where the dormitory rooms of 43 students were left empty with their murder and disappearance in 2014. Violence has touched many of those we have come to know and cherish through the course of our research in Guerrero—in Acatlán, in Chilapa de Álvarez, in Chilpancingo. We can only hope that the tide of violence will recede sooner than later. May the people of Guerrero live in peace. Perhaps then, we too will be able to return to Guerrero and to the question of the distinctively Mesoamerican city and its origins.

Technological objectives

Our research combines traditional archaeological approaches with innovative approaches to archaeological and art historical documentation.

Oxtotitlán cave paintings The Oxtotitlán Cave paintings are foundational in nature. They are especially significant because they represent the earliest example of an artistic tradition that would later become a hallmark of Mesoamerican culture. The methods for digitally enhancing photographs of the paintings in Oxtotitlán Cave we employ have facilitated ongoing analysis of the art. Previously unknown aspects of the compositions are emerging, especially the representation of early rulers and their powerful animal alter egos known as nahuals. Co-PI.s Pohl and von Nagy have been working with Heather Hurst on the interpretation of imagery to be incorporated into her artistic renderings.

We adapted a number of computational imaging techniques, applying both better known algorithms, such as decorrelation stretch, but also lesser known approaches drawn from computer vision studies and computational microscopy to reveal new details in the Oxtotitlán cave paintings using multispectral data drawn from UV through visible

3 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) light to near IR photography. Our image workflow integrates several software image processing systems, principally open source RawTherapee, OpenCV, and Fiji (ImageJ), as well as commercial DxO, and Wolfram Mathematica. Drawing from our success with the cave paintings, we apply computational imaging techniques to more systematically characterize material culture excavated at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and in Tabasco, for instance in the analysis of ceramics color. We anticipate that particular technological approaches we have chosen to employ in our research work flows will prove of utility to other scholars..

Close range UAV and 3D photogrammetric studies At the onset of the project in 2012, we committed to extensive photogrammetric three- dimensional documentation of sites and excavations in an integrated GIS. We combine publicly available LiDAR data and space borne radar altimeter data with multi-band remote-sensed (LandSat ETM+, GeoEYE-1, and ESA Sentinel), historic aerial photographs, and archival data for the regional view. We undertook topographic and regional landscape studies using national LiDAR data made available to the broader research community and lay public by the Mexican government in the Tabasco component of the project. While these data are too coarse to precisely delineate smaller archaeological features such the typically low relief house mounds characteristic of some periods in the region and smaller platform structures, ground resolution is sufficient to define ancient riverine features with significant precision and detect larger features such as the low tell-like sites that form the most important settlement signature of the Formative period in the region. We also employ radar altimeter data in both project areas drawn from the shuttle program and, experimentally, from the TerraSAR program (DSR). These data are especially useful for Guerrero for which public LiDAR data are not yet available. As radar altimeter ground resolution improves, it approaches a resolution comparable to lower resolution LiDAR data we employed in Tabasco. One expectation is that it will become possible to detect ancient domestic terraces that form an important archaeological signature of ancient Guerrero villages and towns using radar data.

Throughout the project, we make extensive use of photogrammetric techniques to provide three-dimensionality to the archaeological record. At Quiotepec-Oxtotilán, we deployed a UAV drone to systematically photograph the site from the air in 2014 while it was still possible in Mexico without specific permission from the military. We also photographed potions of Oxtotitlán cave’s exterior face, although this proved difficult given our UAV’s inability to obtain a GPS lock. The towering mountain marking the eastern side of the site made detecting the signal of sufficient GPS satellites virtually

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impossible, and wind turbulence, a significant problem across the site, made flying without GPS a delicate task.

We use structure-in-motion-based software tools such as AgiSoft PhotoScan and open source visualization tools such as Meshlab, Paraview, and the VTK toolkit to combine high resolution close-range aerial imagery into three-dimensional maps of the site and final orthophoto products. Further, we combine traditional archaeological photography and in some cases low-altitude UAV imaging to create three-dimensional and orthophoto recordings of excavations. We similarly employ structure-in-motion photogrammetric approaches to document artifacts, zooarchaeological, and bioarchaeological materials. In 2012, we conducted initial experiments in the 3D photogrammetric recording and visualization of artifacts from San Andrés, such as ground stone, as well as sculptures from La Venta now in Villahermosa, and continued to use the technique with Quiotepec- Oxtotilán materials.

Project chronology We began work funded by our NEH grant in 2012. In our original timeline, we anticipated developing a research GIS for work in the La Venta, Tabasco region in 2012/2013, undertaking additional survey in 2013, site selection and excavation in 2013 and 2014, followed by a period of focused laboratory and specialist study, analysis and writing, and conference development from 2015 onwards. We planned the development of a Digital La Venta web-platform that would serve as a repository for the public dissemination of our work and for three-dimensional visualizations and studies of Olmec art, principally from La Venta, beginning in 2013. In parallel with work in the La Venta region, we also planned a continuation of our study of Oxtotitlán cave paintings, incorporating findings into the larger proposed Digital La Venta web-based system.

During the 2012-2013 grant year Christopher L. von Nagy collated data into a research GIS database for the La Venta region, conducted additional reconnaissance both in Tabasco and Guerrero, and used these data, as well as data from our earlier work at San Andrés to prepare and submit a summary report and proposal to national archaeological authorities in Mexico for excavations at a selection of sites in the immediate and deeper periphery of Olmec La Venta. National authorities approved our request and granted permission for field research; however, developing political and security conditions on the ground prevented the initiation of excavation although von Nagy together with Eliseo Padilla and Joshua Englehardt continued some archaeological survey to further

5 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) document sites where we had planned excavations. For these reasons, we requested and secured permission from the NEH in 2013 to switch the site of field research to our Quiotepec-Oxtotilán research area in Guerrero where the three co-PIs had on-going collaborative work. From late 2013 forward, we principally focused our research on Olmec-period Guerrero at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Mary D. Pohl initiated iconographic study work and research into the nature of Formative Mesoamerican religion centered on the data we obtained from Oxtotitlán Cave. She attended a semester-long cultural anthropology class on Shamanism taught by Dr. Joseph Hellweg at Florida State University to deepen her understanding of ritualism.

During the 2013-2014 grant year Christopher L. von Nagy developed a research GIS database for Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, continued with computational imagery analysis, wrote a successful proposal to Mexican national archaeological authorities to undertake excavations at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán to sample from Oxtotitlán cave and occupational terraces, and supervised a major program of field work at the site together with Co-PI Paul Schmidt Schoenberg. In parallel, Mary D. Pohl continued iconographic study work and research into the nature of Formative Mesoamerican religion in the US. Heather Hurst and Leonard Ashby continued to refine their re-illustrations of Oxtotitlán cave art begun in 2012. Christopher L. von Nagy and graduate students documented ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological aspects of the Nahuatl-speaking host community, Acatlán, within which the site is located during 2014 and again, with the additional participation of Mary D. Pohl, in 2015. During subsequent grant years and extensions graciously approved by the NEH to allow for continued laboratory work and analysis, von Nagy and students with the assistance of Paul Schmidt Schoenberg studied Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán material culture at our UNAM laboratory, pursued additional computational imagery work, and refined Olmec-period archaeological chronologies at La Venta, Tabasco, and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán through new radiocarbon assays and Bayesian analysis of dates. Affiliated specialists completed or began planned paleo- botanical, zoo-archaeological, and bio-archaeological studies, and undertook the dating of the cave paintings. Mary D. Pohl focused on contextualizing and “reading” Oxtotitlán cave visual narratives. Archaeological artists Hurst and Ashby continued their work on the re-illustration of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Hurst has deep experience and insight into Mesoamerican, particularly Mayan, visual traditions and painting practice, through her extensive work recoding and illustrating Preclassic and Classic period murals.

The contextualization of the Quiotepec cave paintings in terms of ancient activities at the cave itself, of the evolving political-economy of the larger community, and of regional

6 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg and inter-regional social, economic, and intellectual networks forms a core goal of the project. To this end, Christopher L. von Nagy, along with participating students, also visited and documented regional art and architectural traditions at the major Olmec- period sites of Juxtlahuaca cave and Teopantecuanitlán. As at Quiotepec-Oxtotilán and in Tabasco, we apply photogrammetric techniques here too in order to develop preliminary three dimensional renderings of the art for comparative purposes. Earlier, Pohl and von Nagy studied the important Cahuaziziqui rockshelter, also a site of Olmec- period art although the rock shelter remains undated. Three of these sites— Teopantecuanitlán, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, and Juxtlahuaca—are closely spaced and share significant similarities. Both Teopantecuanitlán and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán feature numerous domestic terraces structuring the domestic organization on surrounding hills and may share similar architectural patterns. Architectural traditions at Teopantecuanitlán are extensively documented, while similar research at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán remains an important future goal. All three of the sites are known for their corpus of Olmec period art. At Teopantecuanitlán, this is expressed through a variety of sculptures and relief engravings, notably those associated with the large platform and sunken court at the site's core, and at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and Juxtlahuaca in polychrome cave painting. Associated residential features remain undocumented at Juxtlahuaca, and this cave site may have served as a shrine at some remove from settlements much like the Cahauziziqui rockshelter. At Teopantecuanitlán and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán sculptures and paintings are integrated into the communities and, at least some works, would have been highly visible to community residents and visitors. The public / private nature of art and shrine at these sites and differential character of representation in highly visible, public settings and restricted, private settings reveal specific concerns and core cultural concepts the ancient inhabitants of these communities sought to visually express.

During the initial grant year, progress was made on the Digital La Venta platform by Michael Carrasco and Joshua Englehardt. In subsequent years, the Digital La Venta project evolved into a distinct, NEH-funded project. We remain committed to presenting our research to the broader public via the Internet in a manner similar to that originally proposed as the Digital La Venta website. We developed a prototype, bilingual website in during the 2016–2017 grant year and continue to refine and work on the site which we anticipate deploying in the near future.

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Specific objectives

International collaboration

A primary goal of our project was to facilitate the close collaboration of US and Mexican scholars, in particular graduate students with the aim of fostering long-standing, productive relationships that will enable continued binational Humanities collaborations into the future. Thus, both US and Mexican graduate students have participated in multiple stages of the project: mapping, drone survey, excavation, ethnoarchaeological research, filming, and laboratory research. Students from UNAM (including Arqlo. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez, now curator for West Mexico at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, as well as students and technicians from the UNAM Institute for Anthropological Studies Geophysics unit) and from the University of Nevada, Reno (Mr. Kirk Schmitz and Dr. Amanda R. Harvey) participated in field and laboratory work. In other cases, we assisted students in Mexico with on-going research projects. Alberto Ortiz Brito, for instance, an UNAM graduate student now matriculated into the Ph.D. Program at the University of Kentucky, visited Quiotepec-Oxtotilán with us to complete phenomenological research into the siting of major Olmec period settlements for his master’s thesis. Students at Florida State University, Rhodes College, Skidmore College, the University of Cincinnati, and the Florida Museum of Natural History were also able to participate at various stages in laboratory and analytical aspects of the research. Students at Florida State University, the University of Nevada, Reno, Skidmore College, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), Sage Ridge School (college preparatory) and elsewhere have in various ways benefitted from early exposure to the results of the project in the classroom, including through film, and, in some cases, have provided valuable feedback.

Out of this collaboration one of our students, Mr. Kirk Schmitz, was able to develop relationships at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, that were facilitated by project co-member Arqlo. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez. In 2017, Mr. Schmitz used National Museum collections to study the isotopic signature of early agriculture in West Mexico through the sampling of dental calculus. His work is directly relevant to our work at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and to our understanding of the agricultural economy of Formative Guerrero. We anticipate the ability to make comparisons between Mr. Schmitz's data and both human and non-human osteological remains recovered at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán.

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"Shared" Archaeology

Of equal significance to our project is the relationship we developed with the Archaeological Committee of Acatlán, the Nahuatl-speaking community in which Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán is located. Community leaders such as Gabriel Lima Astudillo and Issac Lima Astudillo have been instrumental in facilitating our research, representing it to the people of Acatlán and to their Comisario, or town government. The Archaeological Committee of Acatlán champions the preservation of the site, in particular the art associated with Oxtotitlán cave. Their interest and active participation in the work of our project is a crucial example of the shared construction of the story of Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán, and it is our intent to further this collaboration into the future. Indeed, the town of Acatlán dates to at least the Late Postclassic and is well-recorded in the sixteenth century documents and maps we have studied. Although certainly differing linguistically, the community of Acatlán represents a modern continuation of the community represented by the site it flanks.

It has been essential to us to include members of the committee from Acatlán as co- authors in presentations, formal reports, and scholarly publications. We continued this activity during the project period reported here. Further, although we began this bi- national project with a commitment to bilingual public and scholarly reporting, we also feel it important to include Nahuatl language summaries and explanation in the final project reports and publications planned for the benefit of the Nahuatl-speaking people of Acatlán and to provide materials to the Acatlán Archaeological Committee to present the results of our joint research in both Spanish and Nahuatl.

Visual culture

A core concern in our work at La Venta and at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán remains the intertwining of visual culture and Mesoamerican Formative period semiotic signaling through dress, sculpture, figurine, roller stamp-printed symbol, cave painting, writing, and architectural arrangement with the construction of novel political systems during the final millennium BCE. We noted in our NEH proposal that the “marked symbol” played a preeminent role in the construction of Mesoamerica’s early cities hinting at a new divide between the intimate face-to-face communication of the village and the anonymous interactions more characteristic of the emerging great towns and cities. As we pointed out, the marked symbol stands in contrast to easily recognized “embedded” symbols derived from the immediate culture. A figurine of a young woman in the third trimester

9 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) of pregnancy, a common trope in the La Venta Olmec corpus, is a good example of an embedded symbol. Marked symbols call attention to themselves in other ways, often fiercely, and form part of the emergent cityscape. Marked symbols are significant to the Olmec world. At La Venta, Olmec artisans employed fierce imagery ranging from jaguars, to crocodilians, to the highly sexualized imagery of a vulva-shaped sculptural water basin. Marked symbols signal sacrality in urban spaces and elsewhere. At Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, much more a town, marked symbols took the form of painted jaguars, warriors, dancing raptor lords balanced over the maw of the underworld, a tiny owl, and impossible chimeras. Much like La Venta, some of these are private and some are public representations. And in both cases, these symbols encode an emerging political visual culture that we aim to decode.

Ritual economy

Rituality is a manifestation of world view and the cosmic order. In our grant proposal, we postulated that ritual practice and its symbolic order encodes underlying cultural logics that organize economics, social status, gender, and political competition and warfare within early Mesoamerican polities and notably such kingdoms as La Venta, Chalcatzingo, and Teopantecuanitlán. A ritual economy was integral to the dynamics of these polities, and rites of dedication, termination, ancestor veneration. To access occult power, practices appropriated from the domestic sphere by early elites, emerged as defining features of political practice. Such rites frequently require material correlates; one might immediately recall the “counted offerings” that figure so prominently in the rituality of present-day Guerrero or even abstracted Mezcala-style representations manufactured with ritual purpose in mind.

For La Venta and other Olmec period polities, we hypothesized that much craft production was subsumed within the ritual and symbolic order of the polity. At many such polities, evidence hints at economies shaped by the need to specialize in the production of goods required for ritual. The idea of the ritual economy encompasses an analysis of such production and resultant consumption or exchange as a currency for the negotiation of meaning. For instance, evidence of feasting and for the specialized production of the material culture of festivities — large cooking pots, wide serving platters, deep containers, even carefully manufactured cups — is common at Formative sites. On a pragmatic level larger vessels emerge from the simple need to feed more people efficiently. In the case of Olmec La Venta, the presence of large numbers of festival

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vessels at otherwise unremarkable exurban communities sited along minor river channels, such as the site of San Andrés we studied, demands further consideration, especially when paired with the surprisingly abundant, scattered, sometimes broken small greenstone jewelry elements almost randomly interspersed. Does San Andrés represent an expected and culturally sanctioned neighborhood reduplication of the center that loomed 5 kilometers to the southwest? Is the site a shrine, therefore distinctive, and are these offerings? Was it common for less powerful families to acquire and mimic the materiality of the center as a tactic to negotiate more social prominence, despite the possible protestations of the elite? These and other scenarios encode divergent potential meanings for the material recovered at San Andrés and represent distinctive pathways in the negotiation of cultural power.

Our ethnographic observations in Acatlán are of a town even today enmeshed in the manufacture of items for ritual. The modern town produces candles for altar and offering, marigold wreaths strung together in small town workshops to be hung at cross-stations and arrayed deep in the grottos and chambers of Oxtotitlán cave, flower bundles for church, tomb, and hierophanies, copal to purify, and embroidered textiles that too find use in ceremony. This is an old economy and participation is widespread. We anticipate that ritual production and consumption, hallmarks of the ritual economy, formed a substantial component of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán’s economy particularly but not necessarily exclusively centered at the cave. We further anticipate the cave site itself to have been a pilgrimage shrine for the region, much like we argue for Olmec La Venta. Pilgrimage, supplication, and the deposition of offerings go hand in hand. Thus, identifying archaeological correlates of the ritual economy and of rituality at the cave are a key objective.

Olmec period chronology and interconnection

Defining the chronology of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán was a major focus for assessing the relationships between Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and La Venta (800-400 BCE). The impressive cave painting at Oxtotitlán depicted a ruler on a throne almost identical to a monumental stone sculpture at La Venta. Archaeologists have postulated direct connections between the two sites, assuming that the larger urban center of La Venta had initiated contact. Extensive radiocarbon dating of materials from the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán excavations revealed initial occupation in the Early Formative period nearly coeval with a date of ca. 1500 BCE on the first polychrome painting at the cave with more robust

11 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) activity in the Middle Formative period after 1000 BCE. Reassessment of radiocarbon dates from within the La Venta polity meanwhile suggested that not only was the development of the site as an urban center later, after 800 BCE, but that materials with iconographic links to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán were even later, some items as late as 500 BCE. We are re-evaluating relationships with the Gulf Coast. We are turning our attention to the relationship between Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and a network of competing religious shrines and associated early urban centers (e.g., Teopantecuanitlán, Chalcatzingo) running along the corridor between central Mexico and the Pacific Coast, whose chronologies and material culture link more closely with Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán.

Major activities / accomplishments

The overarching theme of our research was an investigation of the origins of urbanism in ancient Mesoamerica and the role of ritual in fueling this phenomenon. The proposed project initially focused on La Venta, Tabasco, which flourished 800-400 B.C. Our focus shifted to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico, (1400-400 BCE) when political and crime situation proved too difficult to continue in Tabasco. We continued our theme of evaluating early religious nature shrines as anchors for developing political complexity and associated urban life.

GIS and reconnaissance We developed two research GIS databases incorporating archaeological, remote- sensed, UAV, and archival data to guide field investigations and, ultimately, to facilitate the creation of high-resolution digital map products for both our Tabasco and Guerrero research locations. As planned, we undertook additional archaeological reconnaissance and survey in Tabasco, and to a lesser extent in Guerrero. In Tabasco, we verified suspected sites located along ancient river and distributary channels, and visited probable source areas for desirable raw materials, such as andesite cobbles, that served the needs of the domestic and ritual economies. In Guerrero, we documented portions of the ancient trade and travel corridor between the major Olmec-period sites of Teopantecuanitlán, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, and Juxtlahuaca.

Archaeological survey In Tabasco, we collected medium resolution topographic data on known and potential sites in the La Venta periphery employing open LiDAR data. While existing LiDAR data

12 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg is of insufficient resolution to identify features such as house platforms, it does allow the determination of the extent and height of larger, tell-like sites. LiDAR data are exquisitely sensitive to the topography of the landscape, and our analysis reveals ancient deltaic and coastal landscape features in striking detail. River meanders, ancient oxbows lakes, sunken dunes, rows of beach ridges are revealed in striking relief. Archaeological sites in the region are closely associated with particular landforms, principally levees. Our LiDAR analysis will form a crucial resource for future archaeological research in the La Venta area and broader Tabasco Coastal Plain. It also reveals the extent to which archaeological resources around La Venta but also in the Pantanos de Centla national park to the east are at significant risk of future inundation with expected global sea-level rise. Much of this region lies less than 1 meter above current sea-level. What is now pasture, seasonal popal ponds, field, and orchard will become shallow estuary. The ancient city of La Venta and its prehistoric urban neighborhoods are unmistakably threatened territory.

In Guerrero, we completed a high resolution aerial survey of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán using a commercial UAV quadcopter and GoPro camera in 2014. Images taken from several weeks of flight with a resolution of several centimeters and corrected for barrel distortion using the OpenCV computer vision toolkit provide data for the photogrammetric rendering of a three-dimensional model of the site and environs and facilitate the on-going development of high-resolution orthophoto renderings of the site for inclusion in a final monograph under development. A traditional topographic survey employing a total station in conjunction with differential GPS provides topographic control for the photogrammetric model. With permission of archaeological authorities in Mexico, we placed a set of permanent topographic markers at Oxtotitlán Cave and at locations along Quiotepec Hill. We intend our othophotographic site renderings to facilitate future research, allow for the potential documentation of features, such as architectural alignments, not recognized on the ground, and provide future scholars and the lay public a more realistic sense of ancient community and the context of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Although not yet implemented, we intend to make a reduced resolution model of the site available to the lay public at our project web site via the VTKjs toolkit together with other three-dimensional of aspects of the site, excavations, and artifacts.

Geophysical prospection

13 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Colleagues from the Institute for Anthropological Investigations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIA UNAM) led by Dr. Luis Barba Pingarrón undertook systematic geophysical prospection of two terraces at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán during the 2014 field research season. Dr. Barba's team employed electrical resistivity and a magnetometer to produce anomaly maps of a segment of a large Middle Formative terrace at the base of Quiotepec Hill where surface features suggest the presence of architecture centered on a low platform mound. The resultant map revealed a number of features of interest, some of which merit further attention through excavation. An arcing feature proves interesting and recalls Formative period, apsidal architectural design elsewhere in Mesoamerica (e.g., along the Pacific Coast of Chiapas). The UNAM team probed a second terrace at the top of Quiotepec Hill, above the lower terrace and immediately adjacent to a small structure cataloged as Structure one. Here, magnetometer and resistivity probes revealed no evidence for anomalies despite ample evidence for occupation drawn from our excavations and from earlier excavation by project Co-PI Paul Schmidt Schoenberg when Quiotepec Hill was originally sampled.

Archaeological excavations Christopher L. von Nagy, working with US graduate students and Acatlán community members, undertook excavations at multiple locations at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán in 2014. We targeted three locations: the interior and immediate exterior of the southern rock shelter component of Oxtotitlán Cave near cave paintings C-1 and C-2, a terrace below Structure one at the top ridge of Quiotepec Hill, and a series of erosion cuts each immediately adjacent to historic soil retaining walls—tecorrals—that form a descending, stepwise complex of fields immediately adjacent to the large Formative terrace at the base of Quiotepec Hill sampled by the UNAM geophysical prospection team. We completed excavation of erosion cuts adjacent to the tecorrals in the hope of obtaining datable material. While we did not recover adequate material for radiocarbon dating, we were able to recover some ceramics and identify historic features (nineteenth or twentieth century) lying buried under more than a meter of accumulated soil. These features and the tecorral walls may be associated with sugar production that took place in Acatlán in the years prior to the Mexican revolution. We should note that the Colonial and post-Independence history of Acatlán and, therefore, later elements of occupation within the site area is not yet well-documented in available scholarship and remains a future research goal. Our excavation on Quiotepec Hill revealed Formative and Classic

14 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg period occupational remains and a cobble-lined pit, the bottom of which could not be reached.

Quiotepec Hill and tecorral wall excavations are complemented by an earlier set of excavations undertaken by the National Institute of Anthropology and History in 2008. Then, funds had become available to construct an upgraded walking trail to guide visitors from Acatlán to Oxtotitlán cave. Archaeologists contracted by the Institute excavated a portion of the large Formative lower terrace area impacted by trail construction. The resulting material culture collection had not been analyzed by the time we began our series of excavations. In 2015, we were invited to analyze this material in conjunction with materials we excavated, and the results of the analysis of both collections by von Nagy and students forms the basis for our conclusions to date about the chronology and nature of life at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. The 2008 and 2014 material culture collections are further complemented by materials obtained by Paul Schmidt Schoenberg during the original survey and test excavation of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán some years earlier.

We completed a series of six excavations in the vicinity of cave paintings C-1 and C-2 at the southern rock shelter component of Oxtotitlán cave. One of these excavations sampled the interior of the cave and, due to the extraordinarily dry nature of the cave deposits, provided a remarkable sample of ceramic, woven palm and fiber (e.g., a partial sandal), and lithic artifacts along with notably preserved zooarchaeological and paleobotanical materials including deer bone with dedicated tissue, small cob maize, and desiccated owl pellets. The remaining five excavations sampled locations outside of the cave drip line where soil conditions were distinct, much moister, and preservation of organic materials limited. The placement of excavations at the cave is a challenge. Large boulders lie strewn over the surface and limestone bedrock is exposed throughout the area. We targeted pockets of soil accumulation deep enough for the preservation of archaeological materials; however, we faced an additional challenge. A botanical garden developed and maintained by the Acatlán Archaeology Committee lies just outside the cave. The construction of trails through the garden impacted some locations we had previously identified as candidates for excavation. Those deeper soil pockets we did excavate often contained botanical specimens we were obligated to protect. Despite these challenges, we obtained excellent samples from the garden excavations.

Due to the complex nature of the deposits in the cave and elsewhere at the site, we employed the Harris matrix as the methodology of choice to record sequences of

15 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) deposition. In the cave, archaeological deposits constitute an interleaving of small and large sharp limestone boulder ceiling fall, smaller gravel washed in during episodes of high water flow from crevasses at the back of the cave, materials deposited by humans but also by other mammals and birds, and fine, dry aeolian silt. Due to the silt and possible presence of bat guano (modern Oxtotitlán Cave hosts at least one species and recovered faunal material suggests at least two species found daytime refuge in the cave), participants in the cave excavations wore surgical masks. Excavation at the cave proved particularly challenging due to the formation processes responsible for the deposits.

Significant to our excavations was the use of a new soil sample flotation system designed and built by project paleobotanist David Lentz. Lentz travelled to Guerrero in 2014 where he surveyed the botanical characteristics of the site and Acatlán community and supervised the construction of the system by local metalworkers in Chilapa de Álvarez where the project house was located. Mr. Kirk Schmitz was subsequently trained to use the system which featured a particularly fine filter mesh intended to capture small seeds often lost in other flotation systems. As a consequence, we were able to obtain a notable sample of organic materials from all of the excavations.

Our ceramic sample from the cave includes numerous examples of Early to Middle Formative fine serving vessels, coarser serving vessels, and fragments of cooking vessels. The collection suggests quotidian or festival-related cooking and service, as well as possible ritual offerings. We recovered one of the two known examples of human osteological materials at Oxtotitlán Cave in the cave interior excavation, a possibly highly-curated mandible fragment (The other is a rib recovered by an earlier project). The mandible fragment may have formed part of an offering in the cave. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the excavation place domestic / feasting / offertory activities in the Early through Middle Formative period consistent with our dating of pigment samples from the cave paintings through radiocarbon assay of paint binding and surrounding biogenetic calcium oxalate deposits. Our earliest radiocarbon date, derived from a carbonized twig associated with a ceramic rich midden, places the earliest known activities at Oxtotitlán Cave at circa 1500 BCE, a date consistent with dates associated with paint samples from panel C-2, a highly eroded large or superimposed series of cave paintings that includes a representation of a probable jaguar pelt or coat.

Continued documentation of Olmec sculpture at La Venta

16 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

We continued to document, analyze, and contextualize the monumental Olmec stone sculpture from La Venta, a hallmark of artistic mastery in the Mesoamerican Formative period. We have collected two excellent sources of new data: three dimensional scans previously conducted by Lori Collins and Travis Doering of the University of South Florida Libraries Digital Heritage and Humanities under a Florida State University grant to Mary D. Pohl and now three dimensional photogrammetric imaging conducted by Christopher L. von Nagy as part of the current NEH grant in 2013. The three dimensional scans sidestep background "noise" from such sources as sun and shadow that hinder traditional photography and allow deep penetration of the laser beam to glean intricate details of the sculptures. We uncovered significant details on the monuments that "decode" the original sculptors' goals and messages. For example, the clear delineation of a subsidiary figure beside the central lord, located on the largely destroyed right side of La Venta "Altar" 4, actually a throne, contributes support to the hypothesis that the early Olmec political pattern constituted one of dual rulership. This hypothesis originated with the analysis of the Oxtotitlán painted image program. Knowledge of the presence of the subsidiary figure allows us to analyze the extreme act of destruction that people carried out on this section of the sculpture in a new light. The laser scans further permit us to document and quantify the extent of ancient destruction of monuments. We incorporate these data into a larger theme of our work, that of "sacrifice," which we expand beyond its customary use to describe human sacrifice, to include ritual demolition and dismemberment of all types of artifacts. These artifacts include small craft items, especially locally-sourced ceramic and imported precious greenstone figurines in addition to the carved sculptures. The monumental carved pieces that we scanned and photographed embody a huge investment of labor and construction of "value" through the transportation of volcanic stone to tropical lowland La Venta from distant mountains. These factors make the investigation of the broader subject of sacrifice a major objective of our research.

High Resolution Documentation of Oxtotitlán Cave Paintings We documented and studied the cave paintings at Oxtotitlán continuing work begun with a National Geographic Society Waitt Foundation seed grant and conducted excavation both in the cave and on adjacent Quiotepec Hill, continuing long-standing research of our project co-director Paul Schmidt Schoenberg.

Oxtotitlán Cave paintings display extraordinary artistry. We take special note of the polychrome image of an ancient ruler dressed as a raptor sitting on a jaguar (or serpent)-

17 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) themed throne positioned dramatically high up on the cliff face, directly over the cave entrance. The paintings promise to reveal significant data about early rulers and their efforts to build power and status through innovative painted monumental art works integrated with sacred, life-giving landscapes of mythological “Origin” involving mountains, caves, and water sources. Further, evidence at Oxtotitlán Cave show profoundly long-lived cultural practices and, perhaps even, meanings that may unite Archaic populations with their urbanizing descendants.

It is striking that a spatial division of the two primarily colors employed to create fugitive figurative representations, bold pictographs, glyphs, and large-format polychrome cave paintings — black and red — is maintained throughout the long history of representation at the cave. Fugitive sketches of simplified human figures, possibly drawn in charcoal, pictographs, and the exquisitely rendered polychrome cave paintings represent long cave use, possibly extending across thousands of years. Oxtotitlán Cave comprises two major cave units. A deeper cave is found at the north side, and a shallower rock shelter comprises the southern side. Figures in the north cave are black. Figures in the southern rock shelter are red with the exclusion of the polychrome paintings, but even these maintain the primary color scheme as a dominant color of the composition.

Recent developments at Oxtotitlán Cave have opened up opportunities to document and analyze these cave paintings and pictographs thoroughly. The paintings had been subjected to a certain amount of environmental degradation over the millennia, with plants, dirt, and wasp nests cohabiting the space. More serious has been vandalism perpetrated by graffiti artists especially on those paintings located at ground level. Nevertheless, local inhabitants of the adjacent modern town of Acatlán, led by Sr. Gabriel Lima Astudillo, have taken measures to protect their heritage art, including installing strong fencing. Further, the conservation arm of the Mexican Government engaged Lic. Sandra Cruz Flores in an extensive effort to clean the paintings from 2003-2008. Cruz Flores’ work uncovered paintings previously unknown.

Our team started our research building on the successful efforts of Lima Astudillo and Cruz Flores. The initial documentation of the cave paintings took place in January 2012, funded by a grant from the National Geographic Waitt Foundation. Photographer Joseph Gamble thoroughly photographed the paintings using standard photography as well as experimental use of infrared and ultraviolet film. Archaeologist and artist Heather Hurst, assisted by artist Leonard Ashby, made precision drawings of the most prominent paintings.

18 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

Our National Endowment for the Humanities grant began in November 2012, with these data in hand. The NEH grant significantly furthered the research effort through in- depth analysis of paintings using digital enhancement of photographs by von Nagy, the transformation of information to interpretive drawings, and the placement of the cave paintings in the context of anthropological theory. We conducted radiocarbon dating on organic substances in paint and overlying oxalates. New field work in 2014 expanded the study of the cave paintings through aerial coverage by drone and documentation of larger image patterns through archaeological survey techniques.

We prioritized the delineation of the chronology of the cave paintings, a prerequisite for placing them in cultural context. Chemists Jon Russ, Karen Steelman, and Marvin Rowe, assisted by student Joseph McPeak, conducted the dating following innovative techniques pioneered by Rowe. The polychrome image of a dancer in a jaguar costume dated surprisingly early, to the Early Formative period, at least to ca. 1500 BC. This result shows deep roots of polychrome art, significant because this art form later flourished as a core cultural trait in Mesoamerica both in ancient times and until today.

We improved definition and dating of other paintings too. Heather Hurst identified a previously unknown figure holding a shield. The shield figure, dating to ca. 150 B.C., demonstrated that artistic painting and associated ceremonialism continued for considerable time. Indeed, dramatic yearly rain-calling rituals continue even now.

Past studies of the Oxtotitlán cave have highlighted select painted images. Christopher L. von Nagy carried the photographic documentation further, adding a panoramic scale. He used a drone to photograph the paintings from the air. He has rendered these images in three dimensions magnifying their impact on the observer. Further, he recorded the exact locations of the various images as part of his archaeological survey so that the whole pattern can be studied.

The archaeological and iconographic records we have collected document the essential role of caves in prehistoric Mesoamerican ritual practice. Mary D. Pohl has been investigating the early painted murals, along with carvings in caves and at archaeological sites, in central and western Mexico and the place of Oxtotitlán Cave within the context of this unusual artistic expression. She has been analyzing both the unique imagery represented at Oxtotitlán and on the features that link these cave murals to the wider phenomenon of pan-Mesoamerican Olmec art. She has drawn on iconographic, anthropological, and ethnographic data as well as observation of ceremonies still observed today. She has delineated a deep thread of dualism in artistic programs related

19 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) to overall worldview. In addition, she has suggested the presence of a dualistic blueprint for early hierarchical rulership involving two leaders with overlapping roles, a primary priest-shaman with raptor alter ego (a nahual in Native American belief), and a sorcerer counterpart with jaguar alter ego. The research probes the significance of cave paintings and cave worship in a critical period of evolving social hierarchies.

Interpretation of the art has proceeded with the objective of addressing the subject matter in terms of the worldview of the people who created the paintings. Prominent themes explored include the location of emergent political and economic authority in landscape features, such as caves, mountains, and springs, that represent the source of circulating life energy. Another theme is the principle of duality deeply embedded in Mesoamerican civilization. A radical proposal for dual rulership as early as the Formative period has been put forward as a tradition prior to documented political institutions among later cultures such as the Aztecs.

Duality also touches on principles of “balance” and “complementarity.” Mesoamerican religious traditions universally include a focus on ritual’s role in maintaining balance in the world. Ceremonial performances, encompassing music, dance, mock combat, feasting, bring balance.

Material culture study and analysis Christopher L. von Nagy spearheaded the analysis of material cultural from the 2008 and 2014 excavations at UNAM assisted by UNR graduate students Kirk Schmitz and Amanda R. Harvey, who had also participated in the 2014 program of field research, and by UNAM graduate student and Professor Curator at the National Museum of Anthropology, Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez who, together with Paul Schmidt Schoenberg is an expert in Guerrero ceramics. Analysis continued during the summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Currently, the results of these analysis—ceramic classification and counts, illustrations of all ceramic rims and other exemplary ceramic design features, and a color- controlled digital photographic record of extensive portions of the collection—are undergoing digitization for statistical analysis.

Our excavation at the cave revealed early activities consistent in age with the earliest dates of the cave paintings. We date an extensive Early Formative midden containing relatively coarse, sand-tempered, lightly slipped brown-fired pottery to between 1500 and 1400 BCE. This aligns well with the terminus ante quem date for the oldest cave painting at Oxtotitlán of circa 1500–1480 BCE. Two chronologically inconsistent older

20 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg dates from the midden, possibly from heartwood, have peak probability distributions of 2000–1900 BCE. We consider the two younger midden dates, one from an early depositional context of the midden (circa 1500 BCE) and one from near the top of the midden (circa 1400 BE) placing deposition in the fifteenth century BCE, to be more reliable.

The earliest pottery collection contains examples of moderately-sized serving bowls and dishes, shallow grater bowls, cooking jars, narrow mouthed storage or service jars, and possible incensarios. Sand temper ranges from fine to coarse, consistent with the range of particle sizes at various points in sandy deposits in the nearby Atempa river, and surfaces are generally a matte to semi-lustrous brown with some examples finished with a relatively thin red wash. While decoration is rare, examples include thin to medium incised lines on vessel exteriors when the clay was yet moist and a few examples of gouged-incision. Incised lines tend to be simple circumferential affairs near the lip on vessel exteriors or leaf rib motifs. A notable number of jars have holes near the lip, possibly for suspension or for sealing the jar. The best that could be said about this collection is that it is unremarkable and shares similarities with other Highland ceramic traditions of the period.

Later Middle Formative ceramics recovered from within the cave (relatively fragmentary) and from Quiotepec Hill terraces is another story. Well made, highly polished serving dishes and bowls are frequently slipped in red, tan, or black. Rare gray ware examples are occasionally present. Frequent examples of bi-chrome slipping or polychrome decoration are present, and beautifully iridescent Laca ware dishes form a minor but striking component of the corpus. Slip or paint applied using a thin brush on some examples in reminiscent of painterly techniques employed in the Oxtotitlán Cave paintings. Decorative techniques include incising. Thin-walled, simply decorated Blanco granular jars, designed for storage and for transportation, are a common component of assemblages. The Middle Formative residents of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán enjoyed well- made, colorful, and wear-resistant pottery vessels. The ceramics reflect a well-developed tradition of Olmec period pottery making that shares design similarities, forms, and types with other regions of the Highlands, especially those linked via the even then old Highlands to Pacific coast routes, but which shares virtually no design features with the pottery traditions of the vibrant, emerging Gulf Coast cities. The pottery of 500 BCE Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and 500 BCE La Venta, Tabasco, could hardly be more different. Similarities are limited a popular palette of blacks and reds. Differential firing, a mark of refinement and technological control in the ceramics of the Gulf region has no parallel in

21 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Guerrero. We have seen no examples of finish in the Gulf region similar to the iridescence of some examples of well-finished Laca ware dishes from Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán.

Together with the analysis of ceramics at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, we completed an analysis of lithic, shell, and other elements of the material culture collection. Lithic materials include a locally sourced flaked tool tradition and imported obsidian blade and flake tools. Lapidary work is limited to simple beads in our sample, and imported shell from the coast is also present. While not particularly remarkable—save for a single, beautifully knapped obsidian nose decoration (nariguera)—lithics at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán point to both local trade and longer distance trade links connecting the region to the coast and elsewhere in the Highlands. Obsidian sources have yet to be determined.

Striking for their absence in any of the excavated assemblages we studied are figurines or figurative representations in the ceramic collections. We recovered one small figurative representation of a bird head, an appliqué element from a pottery vessel, from near the bottom of the early midden we studied at the cave. The short, curved beak of the representation recalls a raptor. The absence of figurines from the sample contrasts notably with their frequent presence in excavated samples from the same time period elsewhere in Mesoamerica.

In 2017, von Nagy, Padilla Gutiérrez, and Schmidt Schoenberg returned the 2008 and 2014 samples along with a ceramic type collection to the offices of the National Institute of Anthropology and History regional office in Chilpancingo where they remain available for future specialized analysis and study by scholars. Two further comparative type collections are retained at UNAM.

Paleobotanical and zooarchaeological analysis Paleobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses began in 2015 and are on-going. Project paleobotanist, David Lentz, together with student Venicia Slotten completed an analysis of macrobotanical and flotation samples. The exceptional preservation at the cave, and on Quiotepec Hill, yielded a number of examples of small-cobbed maize. Other useful plants recovered through flotation include chili pepper, squashes, beans, extensive examples of amaranth, tomatillo, blackberry, sunflower, numerous flowers, including marigold, and agave. Tree crops include palm, nance, hog plum, and cacao. An ample range of trees are in evidence in the excavations, including the endemic copal which provides incense. We recovered tiny archaeological examples of sap, most likely copal incense, in excavation at the cave suggesting the use of the sap for ritual purposes may

22 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg have a long history in Guerrero as would be expected given indigenous historical and iconographic evidence elsewhere in Mesoamerica.

The zooarchaeological collection underwent analysis in 2017 at the University of Florida where graduate student Marc Duquette completed a preliminary review of the sample. Unsurprisingly, a large proportion of the faunal assemblage recovered includes rodent bones (grasshopper mice, cotton rats, deer mice, and squirrels). Most of these are probably contributed by owls, and in two occasions we excavated owl pellets. Bat remains include the vampire bat and, possibly, long-tongued bat. Components of the faunal assemblage more likely to represent human food remains, include examples of white-tailed deer and brocket deer, turkey, and turtle with some evidence for cooking. Rabbits also form common elements of the assemblages. Turkey and deer bones were recovered from the excavation in the cave reflecting the consumption of these animals in this sacred locality.

Bioarchaeological analysis Also recovered in the cave, a single highly-curated human mandible suggests that the modern observed tradition of leaving offerings at the cave, today marigold wreaths manufactured as part of the ritual economy of Acatlán, has ancient parallels. The single bone does not form part of a burial; rather its deposition at the cave was deliberate. Dr. Amanda R. Harvey, a bio-archaeologist and specialist in the study of human osteological material, had the opportunity to study the mandible immediately following excavation and later in Reno where she subjected the remains to detailed study. Surface polish and discoloration of the mandible both suggest prolonged handling and burning. The mandible, together with a rib recovered by an earlier project at the cave, suggest that human remains ended their tenure as sacred objects through offertory deposition in the cave.

Conferences To share insights into the nature of the art and into the political-economic character of the ancient communities responsible for the works, we initially proposed to hold at least one conference related to the NEH-funded component of our research. Through the course of our research, project members met repeatedly both in the United States and in Mexico to discuss aspects of our work. We jointly participated in several meetings where we have presented our work to wider professional and lay audiences and organized two

23 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) conferences that served as opportunities for scholars from both UNAM and the United States to meet and discuss issues and preliminary conclusions.

We participated in the May 2013 International Federation of Rock Art Organizations held in Albuquerque, New Mexico where we met to discuss and present progress on our study the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán cave paintings and their importance to the broader understanding of the Olmec period in Mesoamerica. Project members Christopher L. von Nagy, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Jon Russ, and Marvin Rowe met and discussed their collective progress toward re-illustrating and re-documenting the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. They, along with a paper by Pohl, presented the results of their work to the larger community of rock art scholars in a session dedicated to the rock art of, principally, Mexico. The audience is estimated to have varied between 40 and 50 attendees.

Paul Schmidt Schoenberg and Christopher L. von Nagy presented to a mixed professional and lay audience during their invited Cátedra Ignacio Manuel Altamirano lecture at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico. April, 2014. There they discussed the goals and preliminary conclusions of the project and place our project within the wider context of Guerrero archaeology. The audience is estimated to have been approximately 50 to 60 attendees.

Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Christopher L. von Nagy, and Mary D. Pohl met in small conference format over the course of several days in Washington DC in June 2016 to discuss and refine their re-documentation of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. This focused conference allowed for the clarification of essential details in Hurst's artistic renderings of the paintings. Ancient cave art such as that at Oxtotitlán cave often presents interpretive ambiguities in places given the vicissitudes of preservation. There were no other participants.

Mary D. Pohl and Christopher L. von Nagy organized a session and related scholarly encounters for the 2016 Society for American Archaeology meetings in Orlando, Florida, and they also organized a mini-conference held in Washington D.C. followed by meetings in Tallahassee, Florida to specifically advance the re-illustration and re- documentation of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Christopher L. von Nagy, Mary D. Pohl, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, Jon Russ, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Kirk Schmitz, Amanda R Harvey participated in presentations during the session and in other informal meetings and discussions. An audience of 30 to 40 attended the presentation session.

24 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

Challenges

As outlined earlier, security concerns proved significant in both Tabasco and Guerrero. The situation so deteriorated in Guerrero, that UNAM made the remarkable decision to forbid work in the region after 2016. During the period of 2012–2014, when we carried out two major periods of research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, the site and surrounding communities were safe. By 2015, the situation had deteriorated following an attempt by one illicit drug trafficking organization to battle their way into control of the transportation routes and distribution opportunities in the Chilapa de Álvarez municipality.

Ironically, the state of Guerrero had begun work on the development of a paved highway to follow the course of the ancient route, once traveled by human burden bearers and later muleteers, that links Teopantecuanitlán to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Work on this route may have been one of several factors in the logic to go to war over Chilapa and surrounding towns. If the route is opened, significant time will be saved to reach the heavily populated areas of Morelos, the state of Mexico, and Mexico City. Christopher L. von Nagy and Eliseo Padilla drove the route in 2013. Then, their four wheel drive proved barely adequate for the traverse reiterating their perception of the degree of relative isolation these mountain towns enjoyed even until relatively recently. The difficulty of the landscape makes all the more remarkable ancient interconnections. It is poignant that Professor Curator Padilla recalled having walked the same route alone in his youth — he grew up in Chilapa — highlighting the degree of insecurity the Mexican countryside has developed in the last decade and half.

Goals not met As a consequence of difficulties working in Tabasco and during the final component of the grant period in Guerrero, the number of excavations we undertook became somewhat restricted. We would have liked to excavate further into a large Middle Formative terrace and at locations where architectural features may be present. These remain goals for future field seasons when the situation in the region has changed. Our switch to work in Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán precluded further excavations in Tabasco, although as we have outlined, we have been able to continue other aspects of our research there.

25 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

The shift in field location also necessitated rethinking the development of the Digital La Venta component of the project led by Michael Carrasco. Work on this part of the project evolved, and Carrasco, together with Englehardt, initiated a modified version of the project intended to be a store and make accessible a broader corpus of Formative Mesoamerican art. Carrasco and Englehardt began work earlier on their corpus project. A significant feature will be the ability to search for shapes in the iconography, as well as contexts of the art. Work undertaken by the two during the 2013 grant year will presumably serve to provide context for works from La Venta.

In 2017 we began to develop a new version of a web platform to disseminate project research and to tell the story of the work to popular and professional audiences, as well as students. We completed a preliminary web design and developed bilingual materials for the site. We continued to develop these materials and intend to release a completed version of the website in 2018.

Communicating research results with communities of interest

The results were communicated to archaeology and art history professionals through a symposium at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Orlando in April, 2016. In Mexico, von Nagy and Schmidt Schoenberg gave a presentation to Mexican archaeologists, historians, and interested members of the public in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.

We have made an effort to reach communities of interest beyond academia. Von Nagy made English language presentations to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Nevada, Reno and Spanish language presentations to Spanish language students and interested faculty also at UNR. Pohl gave a talk to the student anthropology club at the Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee. Both von Nagy and Pohl have used results from the project to develop unpublished curricular materials used both in university courses and in secondary school classes.

Of special importance has been our connection with the Mexican community of Acatlán, Guerrero, adjacent to the archaeological site and painted cave. Members of the community and municipal council have greatly facilitated our research, and we make an effort to keep in contact with them concerning our research. We ensure that the committee and Comisario receive copies of reports, and von Nagy, with Nahuatl translation

26 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg assistance by Issac Lima Astudillo, has presented directly to the Acatlán town government.

Special reporting requirements

Reference to funding from a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant was included in the Acknowledgments section of the research paper submitted for the volume “Sorcery in Mesoamerica,” to be published by the University of Colorado Press. Acknowledgment of NEH funding has also been included in the concluding sections of oral presentations at the Society for American Archaeology meetings as well as popular presentations to Mexican and United States audiences.

Continuing plans

Nothing to report

Key personnel, primary responsibilities and contributions

Project Co-PIs / Co-Directors

Dr. Christopher L. von Nagy

Co-Project Director and Field Director. Dr. von Nagy, currently Head of the Shared History Program of the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Reno where he also serves as graduate faculty in the Departments of History and Anthropology, planned and supervised the project's four field seasons and three laboratory analysis seasons. Dr. von Nagy specializes in Mesoamerican archaeology and anthropology with substantial field experience in Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States. As the head of Shared History, he teaches oral history, public history and museum studies courses, in addition to archaeologically and ethnohistorically-focused courses, and engages students in digital humanities projects. Dr. von Nagy worked closely with UNAM co-director, Dr. Paul Schmidt Schoenberg and Acatlán Community Archaeology committee members while in country, represented the project to community, state, and national authorities in Mexico, recruited US-based graduate students who participated in field and laboratory

27 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) research in country and in the United States, planned, budgeted, and directed field research in Tabasco and Guerrero, supervised laboratory research in Guerrero and at UNAM in Mexico City, developed digital project assets including databases, remote- sensed image products, project GIS, a high-resolution, drone-based photogrammetric map of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, 3D photogrammetric imaging of site features, excavations and their context, and artifacts, documentary video, and project web products. Dr. von Nagy served as the principal photographer, videographer, and archaeological illustrator (maps, excavations, artifacts, 3D photogrammetric renderings, statistical visualizations) for the project. Dr. von Nagy contributed new imagery using a variety of techniques drawn from computational imaging that together with Dr. Hurst and Mr. Ashby's close technical drawings provide a new and detailed record that reveals the nature of the highly significant art present at the site. Dr. von Nagy served as the primary author on field research proposals and most reports both to Mexican national archaeological authorities and the NEH and co-authored a variety of published and in-development journal articles and book chapters. He co-organized participation in the 2013 IFAO session, the 2016 SAA session and project conference, and the 2016 Washington Oxtotitlán Conference.

Dr. von Nagy traveled to Mexico on project-related work on multiple occasions. In 2013, he traveled to Tabasco for the month of April to prepare for the initiation of field work and visit candidate sites, returning again to initiate excavations in Tabasco in July. He returned to Tabasco for a week in November to participate in a symposium at the invitation of the state museum which graciously paid for all expenses. In 2014, he traveled to Mexico City and Guerrero for a week to secure permissions for the 2014 Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán field season. He returned to Guerrero for a three month field work season during the months of March, April, and May. In 2015, von Nagy made two trips to Mexico returning to Guerrero for a week in May and to Mexico City for laboratory work at UNAM during the month of July. In 2016, von Nagy again spent the month of July at UNAM in Mexico City and again in 2017.

As part of his pro bono contribution to the project, he provided both a physical Linux- based server for the project database and GIS, as well as a virtual cloud-based server for web development on which he developed an early version of the project web site. (the latter was active during the first two project years). Software tools used by von Nagy were partially supported by the grant, notably licenses for AgiSoft PhotoScan and Mathematica. Dr. von Nagy provided other commercial software tools to the project, including a copy of DxO, and an on-going subscription to the Adobe suite for

28 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg photographic, graphic, video, and web-design work. Dr. von Nagy received grant- funded compensation while undertaking field work in Mexico in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. He used NEH-grant funds to finance and manage field and laboratory research, as well as provide support for students (housing / per diem) and to provide payroll for workers hired by the project to assist in research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Dr. von Nagy also used grant funds to date and analyze radiocarbon samples from Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán and from San Andrés, Tabasco.

Dr. von Nagy contributed 48 person months to the project both in the United States and Mexico. During the initial three grant years (2012–2015), he worked the equivalent of or near full time on grant-related activities (rounded to 16, 10, and 10 person-months including academic and summer segments of the year), donating portions of this time as pro bono work to FSU as per the original NEH grant proposal. Due to other academic obligations in subsequent grant years (2016–2018; 6, 4, and 1 person-months), von Nagy’s participation was largely limited to summers and breaks. A change in position now allows him to dedicate more time to the project. (Resident of Nevada)

Dr. Mary D. Pohl

Co-Project Director and Grant Manager. Dr Pohl recruited US-based archaeological specialists and members of our research team and managed relations with these crucial partners as well as contracts and conditions for their analyses. She worked with staff from Florida State University to process paperwork, review budgets, and organize supplies and instructions for field work, as well as equipment for specialist participants. She has handled correspondence with NEH including requests for change of location and extensions due to adverse conditions in Mexico and has contributed to reports to NEH. Pohl initiated and co-organized two conference presentations at the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) in Albuquerque, NM, in 2013 and the Society for American Archaeology annual meetings in Orlando, FL, in 2016. She planned the focused meeting to review photographs and drawings held with von Nagy, Hurst, and Ashby in Washington DC in 2016. With regard to the intellectual goals of the project, Pohl has placed particular emphasis on examining the Oxtotitlán paintings in their archaeological, art historical, and ethnographic context. She has observed present-day ceremonialism at Oxtotitlán Cave, and she has placed the ancient and historical cave ritual in the broader picture of anthropological theory. She has highlighted the unique character of the art as the key to decoding ancient Mesoamerican iconography with

29 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) particular reference to concepts of rulership rooted in the natural environment. She has completed an article on the paintings for a book entitled "Sorcery in Mesoamerica" edited by Jeremy Coltman and John M D Pohl. She is continuing her work on a much longer manuscript examining Oxtotitlán Cave art in relation to other sites in the same network of social, economic, and ritual interaction, as well as a second article on the Mesoamerican theory of nature embodied by the art. Dr. Pohl traveled to Mexico in May 2015 to participate in field ethnographic work and visually review Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Her travel to Mexico, as well as to the Washington DC conference, were supported by NEH funds. Dr. Pohl contributed 53 person-months to grant-related work. (Resident of Florida)

Dr. Paul Schmidt Schoenberg

Co-Project Director and UNAM partner. Dr. Schmidt Schoenberg, professor emeritus at the Institute for Anthropological Investigations (IIA) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), served as our Mexico-based project co-director. Dr. Schmidt arranged the inclusion of UNAM-based and other Mexican graduate students in the project, facilitated a shift in field research location from Tabasco to Guerrero, organized the participation of UNAM geophysical prospection researchers, and provided access to UNAM resources critical to project success. Dr. Schmidt participated in various field seasons in Guerrero. Through Dr. Schmidt, UNAM provided in-kind support to the project in the form of field equipment (e.g., a total station system for topographic survey, geophysical prospection equipment, enhanced GPS stations, a field vehicle) and laboratory access and equipment (e.g., a project office where co-director Christopher L. von Nagy and US graduate students performed laboratory and curatorial work on archaeological collections, access to UNAM computing and Internet resources, on-going materials and collections storage, archaeometry and other laboratory tools). Dr. Schmidt Schoenberg's previous research in the Chilapa and Zitlala municipalities—including regional and site mapping and preliminary material culture analyses—provided a critical departure point for the project. Further, his collaboration with residents of Acatlán concerned with the long-term preservation of the community's archaeological heritage proved crucial to the preservation of a number of elements of the artistic corpus of Oxtotitlán. Dr. Schmidt Schoenberg contributed 4 person-months of direct grant-related work. Dr. Schmidt traveled to the United States once for a week to present at our SAA session and discuss work with project team members. His participation in the 2015 field season at Quiotepec-Oxtotilán and in the 2017 project Chilpancingo trip to return

30 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg collections from UNAM to state offices of the National Institute (INAH) was supported by grant funds. He also continues analysis of ceramics excavated by his previous project, a key contribution to our overall efforts. (Resident of Mexico City, Mexico)

UNAM affiliated contributors

Mstro. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez

Project consultant and field participant. Mr. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez, currently Professor-Curator of the West Mexico room and collections of the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, and ABD in Mesoamerican Anthropology at UNAM served as a key field participant and serves as a key consultant on Guerrero archaeology and ceramics. Mr. Padilla, formerly director of the Tajín Archaeological Site, an important Classic period metropolis of the Gulf Coast region of Mesoamerica, brought deep experience as an INAH archaeologist to the project and helped other project personnel understand the nuances of working with national archaeological authorities in Mexico when field conditions proved challenging. Mr. Padilla has deep personal and professional ties to the Guerrero region, the project's second geographic focal point, and is an expert in the archaeological ceramics of the region. His ceramic insights, together with those of Dr. Schmidt, help guide the ceramics research of US colleagues on the project. Further, Mr. Padilla facilitated first-time access of a participating US graduate student, Mr. Kirk Schmitz, to the osteological collections of the National Museum of Anthropology. Mr. Schmitz employed dental calculus samples taken from the collections to assess both methodological and theoretical questions related to the isotopic signature of maize agriculture available through calculus proxy. Mr. Schmitz's MA thesis resulting from this work, is the direct result of the professional bridge built between UNAM and US graduate students as a consequence of this project. Mstro. Padilla contributed a total of 4 person-months to the project. He participated in a portion of the 2015 field season and on several subsequent trips to Guerrero. He received partial grant support for these trips as his family lives in Chilapa, and he did not require lodging. He traveled to the United States for a week in April 2016 to participate in our SAA session and project conference. (Resident of Mexico City, Mexico)

31 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Dr. Luis Barba Pingarrón

Geophysical prospection lead. Luis Alberto Barba Pingarrón, Head of Archaeological Prospection Laboratory, Institute for Anthropological Investigations (UNAM), undertook the geophysical prospection of sections of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán site in Guerrero over the course of a week during the 2014 field season. NEH grant funds provided fuel, lodging, and meals. (UNAM provided for all other expenses, eg. salary, materials, and vehicle) Dr. Barba and his UNAM team probed portions of two occupational terraces at the site, both related to the Middle Formative occupation. Dr. Barba and his team identified a range of possible candidate structures, including one that may be of apsidal design, and areas of interest for future excavation. High resolution GPS readings taken by the Archaeological Prospection Laboratory team enable a high fidelity placement of the local site grid to the global UTM reference system. Dr. Barba contributed 1 person-month to the project. (Resident of Mexico City, Mexico)

Mstro. Augustín Ortiz Butrón

Geophysical prospection team. Dr. Augustín Ortiz Butrón, Archaeological Prospection Laboratory, Institute for Anthropological Investigations (UNAM) collaborated with Dr. Luis Barba Pingarrón in the geophysical prospection of portions of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán site during over the course of a week the 2014 field season. NEH grant funds provided fuel, lodging, and meals. (UNAM provided for all other expense, eg. salary, materials, and vehicle) His work contributed to pinpointing areas of interest for future investigation and excavation. Mstro. Ortiz contributed 1 person-month to the project. (Resident of Mexico City, Mexico)

Ing. Jorge Blancas V.

Geophysical prospection team. Mr. Jorge Blancas, geophysicist at the Archaeological Prospection Laboratory, Institute for Anthropological Investigations (UNAM) collaborated with Dr. Luis Barba Pingarrón in the geophysical prospection of portions of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán site over the course of a week during the 2014 field season. NEH grant funds provided fuel, lodging, and meals. (UNAM provided for all other expense, eg. salary, materials, and vehicle) His work contributed to pinpointing areas of interest for future investigation and excavation. Ing. Blancas contributed 1 person-month to the project. (Resident of Mexico City, Mexico)

32 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

FSU affiliated contributors

Dr. Michael Carrasco

Iconography and epigraphy specialist. Dr. Carrasco conducted background analysis of Formative Period art from Mesoamerica with particular emphasis on La Venta, Tabasco, in conjunction with graduate student Kristi Peterson in the initial stages of the project. Dr. Carrasco collaborated with Dr. Joshua Englehardt on integrating historical maps, LiDAR data, and published excavation data from La Venta, Tabasco, to create an integrated spatial database of monuments and portable art works. The data have the potential to link Mesoamerica-wide Formative iconography with sites such as Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán. Dr. Carrasco's participation was attenuated due to the NEH-approved change in geographic location from La Venta, Tabasco, to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico, but the information he collected will be used in future research. Dr. Heather Hurst, who had previously worked with our team at Oxtotitlán under National Geographic funding, was brought into the NEH project to work on iconography. Dr. Carrasco contributed approximately 2 person-months to the project. (Resident of Florida)

Dr. Daniel Seinfeld

LiDAR visualization of La Venta (Florida State University overhead funding). Daniel Seinfeld conducted a topographic analysis of the site of La Venta with the goal of clarifying the layout and orientation of the ceremonial compound using a subset of the Tabasco Coastal Plain LiDAR dataset obtained by the project from the Mexican Federal government. The Department of Anthropology, Florida State University funded Seinfeld's research with overhead resources. Dr. Seinfeld contributed 1 person-month of effort toward the project in project year 2012–2013. (Resident of Florida)

Acatlán, Guerrero affiliated partners

Sr. Issac Lima Astudillo

Acatlán Archaeological Committee lead. Mr. Issac Lima Astudillo served as the principal community lead in Acatlán, Guerrero. As a member of the Acatlán

33 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Archaeological Committee, Mr. Lima liaised with Acatlán authorities, introduced project personnel to those authorities, provided Spanish-Nahuatl translation services when necessary, and fielded questions about the project within the larger community. Mr. Lima facilitated the hiring of local project personal under the auspices of the community Archaeological Committee and negotiated access to private land plots across the site. He participated in field work and collaborated with US project personal as part of topographic survey, drone-reconnaissance, and excavation teams. Mr. Lima also ensured that the project team was able to take part in the important rain and fecundity-related offertory and feasting festivals providing the opportunity for the team consider the archaeological signature of such festivals and langue durée cultural patterns in the region. Mr. Lima is co-author on several project presentations and papers. Isaac Lima contributed approximately 3 person months to the project, including time he was officially employed in the field. NEH grant funds supported his participation as a member of the project team. (Resident of Guerrero state, Mexico)

Lic. Gabriel Lima Astudillo

Acatlán Archaeological Committee. Lic. Gabriel Lima Astudillo is a founding member of the Acatlán Community Archaeological Committee and, together with Dr. Schmidt Schoenberg and other Mexican archaeological and conservation professionals, worked tirelessly to facilitate the preservation of his community's archaeological heritage. Lic. Gabriel Lima crucially voiced support for our project in the community and with community governing authorities and provided support for Mr. Issac Lima's more direct interaction with the project team. Lic. Gabriel Lima is the primary community docent for Oxtotitlán Cave art and regularly provides tours to primary and secondary school groups and other interested parties. His knowledge of the site, of previous professional work undertaken at the site, and of the surrounding region directly benefited project investigations and investigators. Lic. Gabriel Lima contributed approximately 1 person- month of time to the project. (Resident of Guerrero state, Mexico)

Project specialists

34 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

Dr. Heather Hurst

Lead archaeological artist. Heather Hurst, archaeologist and artist, worked on precision drawings of the Oxtotitlán Cave paintings utilizing her on-site drawings and extensive project photographs and computational imagery. Dr. Hurst has deep experience and insight into Mesoamerican, particularly Maya, visual traditions and painting practice, through her extensive work recoding and illustrating Preclassic and Classic period murals.The NEH grant employed Dr. Hurst Spring Semester 2016 to produce drawings in preparation for the group conference that Pohl and von Nagy organized in Washington DC to review and discuss the interpretation of the images. Hurst also participated in the presentation of research at the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) conference in Albuquerque, NM, in 2013, and the Society for American Archaeology conference in Orlando, FL, in 2016. Dr. Hurst presented independently on her Oxototitlán corpus work at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in San Francisco, CA in 2015. Dr. Hurst contributed approximately 6 person months to the project and continues to collaborate with Pohl and von Nagy on completing the re-illustration of the cave paintings. (Resident of New York)

Mr. Leonard Ashby

Archaeological artist. Mr. Leonard Ashby, artist, worked in collaboration with Heather Hurst on precision drawings of the Oxtotitlán paintings. Ashby aided with the measurements of features in the field and participated in the Washington DC conference to discuss interpretations of paintings with Pohl and von Nagy, along with Hurst. Mr. Ashby participated with Hurst in the conference presentations at the meetings of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) in Albuquerque, NM, in 2013, and the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, FL in 2016. Mr. Ashby contributed approximately 2 person–months. (Resident of New York)

Dr. Jon Russ

Paint chemistry analysis, paint identification, and radiocarbon dating. Dr. Jon Russ performed chemical analysis on pigments from the Oxtotitlán cave paintings to identify composition and sources in collaboration with student Joseph McPeak. His analysis led to the selection of paint samples for radiocarbon dating. He participated in publication of chemical analysis results. He took the lead in the publication of radiocarbon dating of

35 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Dr. Russ participated in the conference presentations at the meetings of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) in Albuquerque, NM, in 2013, and the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, FL in 2016. Dr. Russ donated scanning electron microscope time and SEM sample preparation to the project. We are grateful to Dr. Russ and to Rhodes College for the donation of both. Dr. Russ contributed approximately 4 person months. (Resident of Tennessee)

Dr. Marvin Rowe

Paint analysis and radiocarbon dating. Marvin Rowe, the distinguished scholar who pioneered methods of dating cave paintings, accompanied our team to the field in its early stages, funded by the National Geographic Society Waitt Foundation. During the NEH funded stage of the project, he consulted on analysis of cave pigments and was instrumental in the dating of samples, providing supplementary funds for the dating itself. Dr. Rowe participated in publications of the chemical analysis of paints and dating of the paintings as well as conference presentations at the meetings of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) in Albuquerque, NM, in 2013, and the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, FL in 2016. Dr. Rowe contributed approximately 1 person-month of time to the project. (Resident of New Mexico)

Dr. Karen Steelman

Radiocarbon dating. Dr. Karen Steelman participated in chemical analysis of pigments from Oxtotitlán Cave paintings and selection of samples for dating. She performed radiocarbon dating of the paint samples for the project. Dr. Steelman participated in the 2016 Society for American Archaeology symposium on Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán research. We are grateful to Dr. Steelman for her contribution of time and resources to the project. Dr. Steelman contributed approximately 1 person-month of time to the project. (Resident of Texas).

Dr. David Lentz

Botanical specialist. Dr. Lentz participated in field excavations at Oxtotitlán Cave during the 2014 field season. He innovated the design of a flotation system for the field laboratory with the goal of enhanced recovery of small botanical remains. We employed the system with success allowing for a more representative sample of smaller plant

36 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg fragments and seeds. Dr. Lentz followed up with analysis and worked with assistant Venicia Slotten at the University of Cincinnati on identifying botanical remains. Dr. Lentz's and Ms. Slotten's work forms part of a planned series of final publications on work at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Dr. Lentz contributed 1 person-month to the project. His work and that of his students is supported by the grant. (Resident of Ohio).

Dr. Kitty Emery

Faunal analyst. Dr. Emery worked on final identifications of fauna from the Oxtotitlán Cave excavations, expanding the initial work of graduate student Marc Duquette. In addition, she conducted isotopic analysis of animal bones to determine such questions as degree of maize consumption, an indicator of human-animal interactions. Dr. Emery contributed spent 1 person-month of time working on the project. Her work is supported by the grant. (Resident of Florida)

Dr. John Krigbaum

Bioarchaeologist, isotope specialist. Dr. Krigbaum examined human remains from excavations and performed isotopic analysis to determine diet and population movement. He also collaborated on on analysis of DNA of human remains with researchers from Harvard University. Dr. Krigbaum contributed 1 person-month to the project. (Resident of Florida)

Dr. Joshua Englehardt

Field work and iconography analyst. Dr. Englehardt collaborated with United States- based project field director Christopher L. von Nagy on archaeological reconnaissance in Tabasco, Mexico. Dr. Englehardt arranged the donation of a vehicle from his institution, El Colegio de Michoacán, for the reconnaissance trip. Dr. Englehardt also collaborated with Michael Carrasco on integrating historical maps, LiDAR data, and published excavation data from La Venta to create an integrated spatial database of monuments and portable art works. The data have the potential to link Mesoamerica-wide Formative iconography with sites such as Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Dr. Englehardt co-authored two public presentations of the iconography research at a Tabasco Coloquio, November 2015, and the 81st annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Orlando, 2016, the results of which were published in a symposium proceedings. Dr. Englehardt's grant-

37 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) related work amounts to approximately 6 person-months. Dr. Englehart received financial support from the grant while in the United States prior to assuming his post at El Colegio de Michoacán in Mexico. Grant funds made possible his participation in one month of field work in 2013. (Resident of Mexico)

Ms. Brenda Green

Graphic artist and archaeological consultant. Ms. Green produced advanced and digitally enhanced images of the Oxtotitlán Cave paintings from project photographs, advised on details of content, and executed graphics for articles and presentations on the research. Ms Green’s graphics work for the project was independently financed. Ms. Green dedicated 2 person-months to project-related work. (Resident of Oklahoma)

Affiliated students

Mr. Kirk Schmitz

Excavation and total station mapping crew chief. Project laboratory analyst.

Mr. Kirk Schmitz, now matriculated into a doctoral program of study in Mesoamerican archaeology at the University of California, Davis, participated in field work, in our UNAM field laboratory, and in project-related activities at the University of Nevada, Reno as an MA student in bio-archaeology and Mesoamerican archaeology. Mr. Schmitz, trilingual in English, Spanish, and Yucatec Maya, worked directly and independently with Mr. Issac Lima Astudillo, the head of the community archaeology committee of Acatlán, Guerrero, and other local Acatlán community participants in the field research. He managed excavation crews within Oxtotitlán Cave and at other locations within the larger site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Mr. Schmitz worked together with Mr. Lima and Mr. Padilla to survey the entire site with a total station and also worked with Dr. von Nagy during the drone-based photogrammetric survey of the site. Mr. Schmitz participated in two laboratory field seasons and participated in ceramic and other analyses undertaken in our UNAM laboratory. In the United States, Mr. Schmitz helped with the analysis of bioarchaeological materials and with the 3D scanning of

38 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg materials. Mr. Schmitz received support for field work from the project NEH grant. The University of Nevada, Reno, funded his participation in project-related research in Reno, Nevada, while matriculated as an MA student, including his participation in our symposium at the 81st annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Orlando. UNR's contribution to the Urban Origins project is graciously acknowledged. Mr. Schmitz served on four field excursions, participating for three months during the 2014 field season, returning with the project to document the May 1– 4 rain-related rituals for a week in 2015, and participating in UNAM laboratory work in Mexico City for a month also in 2015. He participated for a second month of laboratory work at UNAM in Mexico City in the summer of 2016. Mr. Schmitz's total time commitment to the project sums to 11 person months and includes activities in the United States. Grant funds supported Mr. Schmitz's participation in field work in Mexico. (Resident of Nevada)

Dr. Amanda R Harvey

Excavation Crew Chief. Project Field Curator and Laboratory Analyst. Dr. Amanda R. Harvey, a specialist in Mesoamerican bioarchaeology, recently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Dr. Harvey participated as a member of our 2014 field team in Acatlán and 2015 laboratory team at UNAM. In the field, she led excavation teams at Oxtotitlán Cave and also took the lead on ensuring that project materials were properly prepared and accessioned for future analysis. In the laboratory, she provided essential accession, labeling, and data management support while also undertaking her own analyses. She participated in one laboratory season. Dr. Harvey’s participation in project-related research while matriculated as a doctoral candidate at UNR includes her involvement in our Society for American Archaeology conference session and the 65th annual Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies conference. She also led bioarchaeological research presented at the 43rd annual North American Paleopathology Association meeting and the 1st annual University of Nevada, Reno Graduate Student Poster Competition. She received support for fieldwork from the project’s NEH grant. Additional financial subvention for her work came from the University of Nevada, Reno Graduate Student Association. UNR's contribution to the Urban Origins project is graciously acknowledged. Dr. Harvey participated in two field seasons of research in Mexico. In 2014 she spent three and half weeks in the field at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. In 2015 she a month collaborating on lab work at UNAM in Mexico. He total time contribution to the project amounts to 6 person-months and includes activities in the

39 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

United States. Grant funds supported Dr. Harvey’s participation in Mexico field work. (Resident of Nevada)

Mr. Joseph McPeak

Paint chemistry analyst. Mr. McPeak conducted chemical analysis of pigments from the Oxtotitlán cave paintings. He participated in the 12th Archaeological Chemistry Symposium as part of the spring American Chemical Society national meeting in New Orleans, LA, in 2013. He took the role of first author on the published report of chemical results in the conference proceedings. Mr. McPeak contributed 2 person-months of time to grant-related work. (Resident of Tennessee)

Mr. Marc Duquette

Assistant faunal analyst. Mr. Duquette did preliminary identifications of fauna from excavations at Oxtotitlán Cave. He produced an inventory of bones and an interpretive report on the fauna. Mr. Duquette contributed 2 person-months of time to grant-related work. (Resident of Florida)

Ms. Lisa Duffy

Microbotanical specialist. Ms. Duffy has been working on determining what starch grains and residue reveal about how archaeological ceramics were used. Ms. Duffy contributed 1 person-month of time to grant-related work. (Resident of Florida)

Ms. Venicia Slotten

Botanical specialist. Ms. Slotten worked over two semesters on identifying macrobotanical remains from excavations at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán under the supervision of Dr. David Lentz. She provided results of her analysis to Dr. Lentz, who wrote up the official report on the macrobotanical remains. Ms. Slotten contributed 1 person-month of time to grant-related work. (Resident of California)

40 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg

Dr. Douglas Bryan Schaeffer

Research and data entry. Dr. Schaeffer aided Pohl with preparation of an article on Oxtotitlán Cave paintings. He also contributed to the entry of data on ceramics from the cave excavations. Dr. Schaeffer's work on the Urban Origins project was supported by the College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance at Florida State University. We graciously thank the College for this support. Dr. Schaeffer’s time contribution to the project represents 3 person-months of effort. (Resident of Ohio)

Dr. Kristi Peterson

Iconography and epigraphy research and data entry. Dr. Peterson did research on Preclassic period iconography in preparation for comparative studies of thematic content of the art. She also assisted in filling out forms for ceramic inventory of Oxtotitlán Cave excavations. Dr. Peterson's work on the Urban Origins project was supported by the College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance at Florida State University. We graciously thank the College for this support. Dr. Peterson’s time contribution to the project represents 3 person-months of effort. (Resident of New York)

Ms. Helena von Nagy

Web development. Ms. von Nagy is bilingual in English and Spanish and has experience designing web-based applications for international organizations. Before she came to us, she provided translation assistance and video production to the Fundación Shakespeare based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and undertook marketing and web development for the Mexico City-based NGO, Bridges for Understanding. She designed an initial framework bilingual Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán-focused English-Spanish webpage on the NEH research under the supervision of Mary D. Pohl. The webpage informs the public of the results of the NEH funded research. Our online web product reaches communities in Mexico and elsewhere in Central America, in keeping with our mandate of collaboration with Mexican colleagues. Ms. von Nagy received a stipend from the grant for her work. Ms von Nagy contributed 1 person-month of effort to the project. (Resident of Nevada)

41 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Project impact

Impact on Archaeology and Anthropology

Our National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant made significant advances in understanding the origins of Mesoamerican urbanism at the intersection of nature-based ceremonialism, elite status promotion, the ritual economy, and economic exchange. Our research focused at Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico, promoted innovative methodologies for the difficult task of documenting and dating ancient art in remote environments. Our multifaceted approach combined precision survey of both the cave art and of associated archaeological sites with agricultural architecture. Our techniques for superior documentation included drone-based aerial photography, multispectral imaging, and photogrammetry combined with analysis of three-dimensional laser scanning.

The delineation of the role of ritual centers with elaborate painted and carved art in the construction of political authority and networked social relationships was our goal. We propose that Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán “decodes” major social processes in the evolution of urbanism as well as the core beliefs that underlay the ideology that underpinned prehistoric seats of political and economic power. The focus of our research was the intertwining of the site of Quiotepec and its adjacent cave, Oxtotitlán, with competing emergent urban centers within the same Formative period (1500-150 B.C.) ritual circuit that extended from Central Mexico to the Pacific Coast. These urban centers included Teopantecuanitlán, Guerrero, and Chalcatzingo, Morelos.

Oxtotitlán represents the earliest manifestation of a painting tradition now recognized as a key characteristic of ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Yet its now-remote location and the deterioration of some of the painted panels hindered investigation of this pivotal site. Our technological advances focused on methods of documenting and dating prehistoric cave paintings at Oxtotitlán to reveal the true character of the art in its chronological context.

Our chronological program serves as a model for archaeological and anthropological dating. Pinning down the chronology of Oxtotitlán’s painting proved essential to investigating its earliest development. Many archaeologists consider painted cave walls impossible to date. Nevertheless, following methods pioneered by collaborator Marvin Rowe, chemists Russ, McPeak, and Steelman isolated organic materials in paints and

42 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg enveloping organic natural deposits for analysis by multiple analytical techniques. Our chemists radiocarbon dated various Oxtotitlán compositions between 1500 B.C and 500 A.D.

We approached the crucial dating issue from multiple angles. Excavations within Oxtotitlán Cave, as well as at the associated site of Quiotepec, provided substantial additional organic material for radiocarbon dates that back up the findings of Early and especially Middle Formative period activity at this key ancient location.

Advances in documenting the cave art included combining extensive photography of the paintings, including experiments with infrared and ultraviolet photos, with digital enhancement of the images. Particularly significant was the use of photogrammetric approaches and a UAV to capture the entire layout of the compositions where previous studies focused in individual motifs. The photographic image collection was the basis for a Washington, DC, conference with Heather Hurst, who is doing artistic renderings of the paintings.

The theoretical analysis of the cave art focused on its role in linking emergent political authority with a sacred landscape representing world origins and founding ancestors within an overarching theme of dualism and balance that we deem central to Mesoamerican worldview. We went on to propose a novel model of dual leadership evident as early as the Formative period, a pattern manifestly documented for later cultures such as Teotihuacan and the Aztec of Central Mexico.

We investigated a parallel theme of the animating role of nature with special emphasis on nahualism or powerful animal alter egos. The newly cleaned images at Oxtotitlán brought out fresh interpretations of artistic themes. The strong interconnection of nahualism and political authority emerged. We propose that these fierce alter egos, jaguars, raptors, rattlesnakes, featured prominently in strategies of attraction and coercion in early urban polities. This observation stands out because nahualism still reigns central to Mesoamerican culture to this day.

Archaeological excavation of the areas around the cave demonstrated that regional urban development accompanied political and religious activity at the cave itself. Inhabitants duties likely included hosting ceremonies for pilgrim worshippers. The site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán joins other ceremonial centers such as nearby Teopantecuanitlán, Guerrero, and Chalcatzingo, Morelos, to the north as participants in a network of central Mexican ceremonial-based urban centers. We continue to explore

43 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) more distant relationships with the Gulf Coast, with the major urban site of La Venta in particular, through landscape studies, the systematic analysis of artifacts, new dating, as well as three-dimensional laser scans of stone carvings with themes parallel to those of Oxtotitlán.

The synthesis of landscape, art, and political and ritual performance by early leaders constitutes a prime thrust of our contribution to anthropological theory. We back up our theoretical contributions with innovative methodologies for documenting cave art and placing the execution of the art in the context of early Mesoamerican religious worldview, political dynamics, and early urban development.

Impact on other disciplines

The research will have the greatest impact on the disciplines of Art History, Latin American History, and Latin American Studies.

Contributions to Art History

The models developed for documenting and dating Oxtotitlán cave art can be applied to paintings and mural art from all time periods. Experience garnered successfully radiocarbon dating pigment and associated biogenic oxalates while only minimally impacting the paintings improved the techniques and methods employed to sample, extract, and date the minute quantities of carbon present in typical samples to the benefit of rock art and mural research. Our computational processing of multispectral data to reveal near invisible and fine details no longer easily seen during direct visual inspection of the art may prompt other researchers working at similar sites to experiment with such techniques.

Oxtotitlán Cave paintings are in some sense foundational to the long tradition of painting and muralism that begins during the Mesoamerican Formative in Guerrero and continues even today in the hands of contemporary studio and, even, street artists. While we cannot predict how our contribution to the understanding of the visual traditions and codes of Formative Mesoamerica might impact practicing artists, we anticipate that the re-imaging and insights developed will touch future artists through their study of this exquisite early example of the Mesoamerican painterly tradition. Indeed, our analyses of the relationships of art and political, economic, and religious power in Formative Mesoamerica provide a compelling comparative case study for the agency of artistic representations.

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Contributions to Latin American History and Latin American Studies

The profound influence of indigenous culture on Latin American history and contemporary culture are continuing to be fully recognized. Understanding the roots of New World civilization is essential to understanding the course of history in Latin America and society in the modern world. Our work potentially benefits new generations of students taking courses in Latin American art and history through exposure to our re- illustrations of Oxtotitlán Cave paintings and our contributions to understanding their placement within the evolving cultural traditions of ancient Mesoamerican and modern Mexico and Guatemala. Further, we hope that the dissemination of our work through popular channels helps to inform US citizens with familiar ties to Mexico and Guatemala of an exceptional aspect of their heritage.

Contributions to other disciplines

Some of our work has implications for other disciplines. We had originally intended to collaborate with Dutch geologist Kees Nooran who had a program of coring within the Tabasco Coastal Plain (the Grijalva and Usumacinta deltas) aimed out outlining aspects of the Holocene history of the delta systems. The evolving deltaic landscape of the region is closely tied to the development and on-going changes in systems of human settlement and to the rise and fall of coastal polities in the region. La Venta was no exception. Our work with Tabasco LiDAR data during the first grant year to map geomorphological features with an eye to landscape and landform history will potentially be of use to other scholars within the disciplines of geography and geology.

Impact on society

One of the key goals of this project was collaboration between the United States and Mexico through archaeological research. The principal investigators comprised Pohl and von Nagy from the United States and Schmidt Schoenberg from Mexico. Many other professional archaeologists and students from both countries participated in the field investigations as well as analyses of data. Of central importance was the interaction of our research team with residents of the village of Acatlán, located adjacent to the ancient ruins and cave site. Residents of Acatlán are the keepers of these incomparable archaeological remains in collaboration with the Mexican Government. The information generated by the project greatly improves knowledge of Mexican heritage both for local society and for the country as a whole.

45 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Oxtotitlán Cave matters to many groups. Elementary and secondary school children frequently visit the site for the tours Lic. Gabriel Lima Astudillo of the Acatlán archaeology committee leads. Our new information will provide fresh perspectives that might be shared during these heritage activities. The cave is an important performance site for native-style dancers who, in rich costumes that re-imagine the splendor of Precolumbian dance, celebrate the centrality of the cave and its paintings to the participants today. Dancers do not just climb to the cave to perform. They spend significant time viewing and discussing the paintings, sharing the story of the art with each other and with new and youth dancers. Our discoveries, too, will enrich these activities with new knowledge. Citizens of the town of Acatlán have long sought financial support from national archaeological authorities to provide the protection and maintainence services essential to the site and cave paintings. In the past, basic services such as the removal of trash from bins placed at the site were often paid out of the local committee’s budget. Our research will help bolster their argument for the merits of federal support for the protection of the site. The increased value of the site improves social, economic, and civic conditions for the immediate and larger community.

Residents of the United States have a great interest in ancient cultures of Mexico, mostly centering on the better-known Maya and Aztec civilizations. This project focuses on the antecedents to those civilizations, deepening an appreciation of the long development of cultural history in the region. An appreciation of the rich Mexican heritage, whether acquired by reading books or by traveling to sites, improves public knowledge in a way that has the potential to improve understanding of our neighbors and heighten civic discourse.

In the United States curricular standards often include an expectation that students learn about these ancient American cultures and their importance to many Americans today. Insights garnered through our project, through the re-illustration of Oxtotitlán Cave paintings, and our continued work to image Olmec period art in Guerrero at Teopantecuanitlán and in Tabasco at La Venta are of direct benefit to school children who may see improved illustrations in newer editions of textbooks, through the efforts of their teachers to present newer research in their classrooms, or directly by visiting on- line resources while undertaking their own class-related or personal research. Our on- going effort to provide bilingual access to project materials and images will directly benefit students in the United States, Mexico, and other countries.

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Our work impacts lay media audiences, as well. Christopher L. von Nagy participated in the filming of a documentary on the Olmec to air on the popular Science channel archaeology series “Unearthed.” In the filmed segment, he discusses a late, circa 500 BCE Olmec period cylinder stamp recovered from San Andrés, Tabasco, which we argued printed two glyphs, one a day count date, placed at the terminus of two speech scrolls emanating from the mouth a depicted bird. Further radiocarbon work supported by this grant enabled us to refine the dating of the object which, we had originally dated earlier, new knowledge that von Nagy as able to share in the filmed segment.

Financial impact on foreign countries

International research in Mexico amounted to 32.49% of Total Direct Costs and 25.86% of Total Costs.

Project changes

Changes in approach

"Nothing to report"

Problems

"Nothing to report"

Changes in expenditures

"Nothing to report"

Change in performance site

The research location was originally planned for the region of La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. The initial field season in 2014 included reconnaissance around the greater La Venta urban center. Unfortunately, conditions in the region proved too difficult in terms of politics and crime to continue the project as described in the proposal. We applied to

47 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

National Endowment of the Humanities to move the location of the research from Tabasco state to Guerrero state, where we had previously done preliminary investigations of the relationship of La Venta to Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán.

We applied to NEH to move the location of the research from Tabasco to Guerrero state. Our request was officially approved by NEH.

Our evaluation is that the NEH-sponsored work at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán has the potential to reveal significant social, economic, and political linkages between the cave- focused site and the major ceremonial center of La Venta that provides an understanding of the origins of urbanism at different scales in Mesoamerica. We anticipate that we will be able to utilize the results of our 2014 reconnaissance at La Venta in expanded field work there in the future.

Change in project staff

We made a change in project personnel as a result of the change in location from Tabasco to Guerrero state in Mexico. Kees Nooran, then at the Department of Geosciences, University of Utrecht, had partnered with us to undertake geological coring of Grijalva delta sediments near La Venta and continued his delta process-focused research in Tabasco. Michael Carrasco, along with Joshua Englehardt, had originally been scheduled to construct a webpage titled “Digital La Venta.” After the change of location, their participation was less relevant to the project, and they became increasingly involved in their own research at La Venta and other Gulf Coast sites. Instead, we brought in archaeologist and artist Heather Hurst to conduct research on our photographs and execute drawings of the cave paintings at Oxtotitlán. Hurst had previously been a member of our National Geographic Society Waitt Foundation research trip to Oxtotitlán and was able to join our NEH team with maximum efficiency. Differences in archaeological outcomes preclude some specialist work at this time, e.g., extensive palynological work and chemical analysis of pottery for ancient liquids, although these may be pursued in the future.

Special reporting requirements

Reference to funding from a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant was included in the Acknowledgments section of the research paper

48 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg submitted for the volume “Sorcery in Mesoamerica,” to be published by the University of Colorado Press. Acknowledgment of NEH funding has also been included in the concluding sections of oral presentations at the Society for American Archaeology meetings as well as popular presentations to Mexican and United States audiences. Reference to the National Endowment for the Humanities is also included in all web products.

Project outcomes

The larger-than-life images of early rulers painted on the cliff face and inner chamber of Oxtotitlán Cave in Guerrero, Mexico, are the most impressive manifestation of prehistoric Mesoamerican art, bar none. The flamboyant polychrome kingly portraits painted at this remote mountain cave shrine seemingly came out of nowhere. What spurred the creation of this visual masterpiece laid upon the landscape? Who commissioned the work and by what authority? What social and environmental magnet drew pilgrim worshippers back here year after year? How did the cave art center the urban core that began to develop around it? What ceremonial and craft offerings did people labor to create, perpetuating a ritual economy in the service of this ceremonial phenomenon?

A few intrepid Western academic explorers initially investigated Oxtotitlán first-hand beginning in the 1970s. Perilous mountainous terrain impeded recognition of the paintings’ technical expertise as the years passed. Environmental and human damages that occurred over the centuries seriously obscured the composition’s vital message.

The goal of our National Endowment for the Humanities grant focused on documenting and analyzing the paintings as a multifaceted construction synthesizing mythology of “life force” encompassing sun, water, fertility inherent in the natural landscape with the political reality of emergent political, economic, and religious power. This environmental power fueled the evolution of early political power of kings and their emergent urban strongholds, linked to other sites by networks of participating pilgrims.

Our NEH-sponsored research provided a model for the application of novel technology to document and date the cave paintings and associated settlement. Documentation included multiple image-capturing methodologies including the use of a

49 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) drone to reach high-up cliff faces that ancient painters braved. Dating cave paintings proves extremely difficult. Nevertheless, our chemists isolated and identified organic components of pigments and overlying organic deposits, substances that provided radiocarbon dates demonstrating that the ceremonial painting of a what appears to be a jaguar or jaguar-costumed performer began in the Mesoamerican Early Formative period, as early as 1500 B.C.

Archaeological excavations inside the cave and at the associated settlement of Quiotepec backed up the dates on the paintings themselves. The radiocarbon dates on excavated materials re-enforced the proposition that painting began in the Early Formative period and expanded in the Middle Formative with the more elaborate paintings beginning 1000 B.C.

Our research substantially contributed to a deeper understanding of core New World cultural principles, of which Oxtotitlán Cave constitutes an exemplary case study. New details of the paintings have emerged as a result of the Mexican Government’s conservation program, our multifaceted photographic compilations with cutting-edge digital enhancement, archaeological excavations, and analysis of precision-based artistic renderings. For example, the central lord painted high on Oxtotitlán’s cliff face originally appeared to be wearing an owl headdress. The new data, including traces of tail feathers, show that the whole bird is flying behind the lord. We now identify the bird as a falcon raptor and see that the lord has an alter ego, known in Mesoamerica as a “nahual.” The alter ego transforms him into a revered or feared Raptor Lord. Fierce nahuals such as raptors exert social influence and control. We conclude that nahualism, the belief in animal soul companions that endowed actors with agency for good or evil among high- status elites, formed a key characteristic of indigenous Mexican culture with deep roots.

The focus on nahualism led to the study of another ancient core belief in Mesoamerica: dualism. Although ancient painters rendered the Raptor Lord in bright red and green on Oxtotitlán’s sunny cliff face, they painted a second lord in black in the deep shadows inside the cave. A jaguar mirrors the second lord marking him as Jaguar Lord. Jaguars are the embodiment of the Underworld realm of watery fertility, degradation and renewal, and the refuge of sacred ancestors according to Mesoamerican thought, complementary in their role to the solar raptor. The images of the Oxtotitlán lords with their powerful nahuals led to the proposal that dual leadership characterized early Mesoamerican cultures long before the Aztecs, a pattern well-documented in accounts at

50 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg the time of Spanish conquest. Dual leaders and doubled landscapes of mountainous cliff faces, deep caves, and fresh springs create balance in the world.

Dating the Oxtotitlán paintings became essential to establishing their relationship with religious centers that made up the same ritual, economic, and political circuit extending from central Mexico to the Pacific Coast. Decoding the Oxtotitlán paintings allowed us to recognize artistic programs at other sites as variations on themes of mythology rooted in beliefs in the timeless, life-giving qualities of the dualistic landscape fused with the agency of historical dual rulers, their nahuals, and their ancestral patrons. Other central Mexican sites such as Teopantecuanitlán, Guerrero, and Chalcatzingo, Morelos, similarly engaged in production and trade in status building goods such as precious greenstone and colored feathers for costumes and chocolate (cacao) for conspicuous elite consumption at ceremonial festivities. Performance- oriented religious festivals and feasts activated and actualized this synthesis of mythic and historical forces. Acts of devotion, repeated year after year, involving sacrifice of time, labor, and precious resources, literally kept the world running.

Excavations in the cave enhanced our understanding of agency in ritual performance. For example, deer bones match the image of a deer lying beneath the Jaguar Lord and his jaguar nahual on the inner cave wall. These tangible remains attest to animal sacrifice and feasting that reinforced petitions for rain that took place in the cave. A human mandible, touched by fire and polished by years of handling, records the presence of sacred ancestors who Mesoamericans believe traditionally inhabit caves, guiding political leaders and aiding religious petitioners with health and prosperity.

Enhanced understanding of the legacy of cultures with which the United States shares our New World underwrote our ultimate goal. Our efforts to uncover the ideological, political, and economic foundations of Mesoamerican civilization in the Formative period beginning at 1500 B.C. cultivate greater knowledge of the diverse heritage of the Americas. To this end, we sponsored presentations of the results of our research to professionals who can communicate our findings to students as well as to a broader community, both in the United States and in Mexico. Our project sponsored photography and video filming of ongoing jaguar-themed ceremonies based on centuries-old traditions taking place yearly at the modern-day community of Acatlán, adjacent to Oxtotitlán Cave, that will serve as invaluable cultural documents in the future.

Our efforts to bring greater communication between the United States and Mexico achieved immediate, tangible application. Our research team constituted a bi-national

51 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) collaboration between researchers and the public. Our interaction with the residents of the Mexican town of Acatlán formed a core activity. Individuals from Acatlán rescued the ancient paintings from modern destruction, leading to the rehabilitation of the images by Mexico’s professional conservationists. They raised funds for a fence and a bridge to both protect the cave and to make it accessible to visitors to display their invaluable heritage. They greatly facilitated our research in the area. In turn, we committed to communicating our findings to the community as well as to the Mexican and U.S. public as our research continues to develop its results.

Urban Origins project grant products to date and under development

Archaeological collections

General collections

Materials recovered during excavations at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán by Urban Origins project personnel (UO 2014) and by National Institute of Anthropology and History personnel (PEO 2008) formed the core of archaeological materials analyzed in 2015, 2016, and 2017 at UNAM. Material culture recovered include ceramics, lithics, shell, fiber, insect, and historic material culture collections. In addition to material culture, collections include soil samples for micro-botanical analysis, zooarchaeological (including insect remains), paleobotanical materials recovered through flotation, paint pigment and substrate samples from Oxtotitlán art, and carbon for radiometric dating. Radiometric, stylistic, and technological dating situate the collections from the Early Formative through to the contemporary period; however, the bulk of materials are Early through Middle Formative in date correlating with the period of creation of major polychrome figures at Oxtotitlán Cave (eq. C-1 and C-2). Core analysis of these materials has been completed and, except as otherwise noted, collections are currently at a Guerrero Regional Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) storage facility where they remain available for future specialized analyses.

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Archaeological ceramic type collection A

Project personnel developed three reference material culture collections, primarily of Formative and post-Formative period ceramic types, for use in subsequent studies by project-affiliated scholars and by others. Scholars may consult Type Collection A at the Guerrero Regional office of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Archaeological ceramic type collection B

Project personnel developed three reference material culture collections, primarily of Formative and post-Formative period ceramic types, for use in subsequent studies by project-affiliated scholars and by others. Scholars may currently consult Type Collection B at the Institute for Anthropological Investigations, UNAM. In the future, scholars should consult Type Collection B at offices of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Archaeological ceramic type collection C

Project personnel developed three reference material culture collections, primarily of Formative and post-Formative period ceramic types, for use in subsequent studies by project-affiliated scholars and by others. Scholars may currently consult Type Collection C at the Institute for Anthropological Investigations, UNAM. In the future, scholars should consult Type Collection C at the National Museum of Anthropology.

Paleobotanical collection

Paleobotanical materials recovered through screening and flotation strategies during the 2014 field season allow insight into dietary and other questions pertinent to our understanding of subsistence systems and the ambient environment at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán through time. Materials include macro-botanical, small-cob maize examples, plant fiber, animal coprolites with plant materials, numerous seeds, and other diagnostic plant fragments. Preservation within dry Oxtotitlán Cave sediments particularly favors paleobotanical—and zooarchaeological–analyses. Currently this collection resides at the University of Cincinnati. Upon completion of analyses, we intend to return the collection to the Guerrero Regional Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

53 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Zooarchaeological collection

Zooarchaeological materials recovered through fine screening of Oxtotitlán Cave sediments and screening of other excavated material reveal patterns of animal use by the ancient community but also reflect environmental conditions. Larger faunal materials partially reveal human subsistence and feasting activities at the cave (eg. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)), while smaller faunal materials (eg. small rodent mandibles, teeth, and ribs) are primarily associated with avian predators, most importantly owls (eg. the Barn Owl, (Tito alba), Balsas Screech-owl (Megascops seductus), Spotted Sreech-owl (Otus trichopsis), and the tiny Ferruginous Owl (Megascops seductus)). We recovered preserved owl pellets in two excavations of a size typically regurgitated by larger owls, such as the endemic Barn Owl. Researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History, under the direction of Dr. Kitty Emory, are currently studying the collection.

Archaeological radiocarbon sample collection

To achieve one of our key project goals—a refinement of regional chronologies related to the emergence of complex polities, processes of urbanization, and the semiotics of power in formative Mesoamerica—we collected and analyzed a set of optimal radiocarbon samples (eg., avoiding heart wood) from both San Andrés, Tabasco, the original project field focus, and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán in Guerrero. Further carbon samples form a set of potential comparative materials that we intend to return to the Guerrero Regional Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History for use by future scholars. We also retain a set of pigment samples from Oxtotitlán Cave art, part of the sample of rock art paint that revealed the breadth of Formative period artistic activity at the site.

Archaeological soil sample collection

Project personnel retained extensive flotation and micro-botanical soil samples from all excavations during the 2014 field season. We processed flotation samples in the field resulting in light (float) and heavy fractions. Light factions constitute the paleobotanical sample now at the University of Cincinnati. We retain a small sample of excavated soil, primarily for future micro-botanical analysis. This collection resides at the Centro Regional de Guerrero, INAH storage facility.

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Human remains

Human remains recovered in excavation at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán constitute a single mandible. At the completion of analyses now on-going in the United States, we plan to repatriate the mandible to the Guerrero Regional Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Articles

Russ, Jon, Mary D. Pohl, Christopher L. von Nagy, Karen L. Steelman, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Marvin W. Rowe, Eliseo F. Padilla Gutierrez, and Paul Schmidt (2017) “Strategies for 14C Dating the Oxtotitlán Cave Paintings, Guerrero, Mexico.” Advances in Archaeological Practice 5 (2):170–183.

Absolute dating confirms that Oxtotitlán Cave paintings at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán are among the earliest in Mesoamerica. We describe the application of advanced radiocarbon strategies developed for situations such as caves with high carbon backgrounds. Using a low-temperature plasma oxidation system, we dated both the ancient paint and the biogenic rock coatings that cover the paint layers at Oxtotitlán. Our research has significantly expanded the time frame for the production of polychrome rock paintings encompassing the Early Formative and Late Formative/Early Classic periods, statistically spanning a long era from before ca. 1500 cal B.C. to cal A.D. 600.

Book, Thesis, or Book Section

McPeak, Joseph, Mary D. Pohl, Christopher L. von Nagy, Heather Hurst, Marvin W. Rowe, Eliseo F. Padilla Gutiérrez, and Jon Russ (2013) “Physicochemical Study of Black Pigments in Prehistoric Paints from Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico.” In Archaeological Chemistry VIII, edited by Ruth Ann Armitage and James H. Burton, pp. 123–143. ACS Symposium Series 1147. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.

We investigate the potential for identifying and dating black pigments on the Formative-style paintings at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico, with the goal of studying prehistoric paint technology and the socio-political context of early Mesoamerican art. We employed multiple analytical techniques including pXRF, ATR-FTIR, SEM-EDS, and

55 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Py-GC-MS to analyze black paints used to construct select motifs, including the depiction of a costumed lord at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán (Painting C-1). We demonstrate that the pigment was primarily a byproduct of pyrolyzed plant material, likely a mixture of soot and charcoal; however, we also demonstrate the presence an unidentified pigment constituent, most probably bitumen (asphalt), in painting C-1. If confirmed, we demonstrate for the first time the exploitation and exportation of petroleum-based commodities from the Formative period Gulf Coast.

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, Lori Collins, Travis Doering, Shannon Weatherby, Maria Tway (2014) “El Sacrificio en la Unidad Política de La Venta, Tabasco.” (Sacrifice in the La Venta Polity, Tabasco) In Tabasco: Una Visíon Antropólogica e Histórica. Edited by Miguel Anjel Rubio Jiménez, Rebeca Perales Vela, Benjamin Pérez González, pp. 85-155. Instituto Estatal de Cultura de Tabasco and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

This article takes a broad view of sacrifice and contextualizes evidence for possible ritual killing at San Andrés, an exurban component of the La Venta polity, and for the ritual destruction of artifacts at both San Andrés and La Venta. We draw on an emerging new paradigm in sacrificial studies articulated most recently by Kathryn McClymond (2008, Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice) placing emphasis on the production and distribution of sacra rather than principally on the act of killing. We propose that a potent type of sacrifice in ancient Olmec society at the major urban religious center of La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico involved the large-scale destruction of artifacts large and small. Patterns of artifact breakage and disposal reveal predictability and complex post-breakage processing not necessarily related to mechanical properties. We pay particular attention to small-scale clay figurines, especially female forms representative of multiple stages of pregnancy but also death, broken apart in predictable, arguably ritualized, patterns suggestive of concerns around life cycle and pregnancy.

Calkins, Adam (2017) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) as a Tool for Archaeological Investigation in 19th Century Historic Archaeology. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada.

Adam Calkins adapted techniques for the close range, high resolution aerial photogrammetric survey of archaeological sites employing UAVs (drones) to the study

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of the historic mining town of Aurora, Nevada, after first studying techniques, methods, and procedures with Christopher L. von Nagy. Today, Aurora's structures are largely removed or collapsed. Calkin's employed software tools developed for our Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán work to process images taken with a GoPro camera into three-dimensional orthophoto products focused on several neighborhoods in Aurora. Calkins used these products to consider aspects of the social and economic dynamics of this short-lived, nineteenth century town. He demonstrated how UAV aerial photography and photogrammetric techniques can be used to capture unique, high-resolution visual records of archaeological sites that can facilitate the development of new approaches to the computational study of archaeological resources, including through novel uses of computer vision algorithms.

Englehardt, Joshua D., Michael D. Carrasco, and Mary D. Pohl (2017) “Nuevos trazos sobre la cultura visual Olmeca. La applicación de téchnicas digitales de visualización.” In Arqueología de la Costa del Golfo. Dinamicas de la Interacción Política, Económica, e Ideológica. Edited by Lourdes Budar, Marcie L. Venter, and Sara Ladrón Guevara. Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico.

Results of innovative methods of documenting monuments from the major Gulf Coast site of La Venta are assessed. The application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) reveals greatly enhanced details compared with traditional photographic methods. The images reveal substantial deterioration of monuments over the 50 years that they have been on display in an archaeological park and the need for conservation efforts. The new data show details of the sculptures previously unknown.

Ortiz Brito, Alberto. (2017) Análisis Comparativo de Cinco Rasgos del Paisaje con Relevancia Simbólica del Horizonte Olmeca. (Comparative Analysis of Five Landscape Features of Symbolic Relevance to the Olmec Horizon.) Unpublished Masters Thesis. Mesoamerican Studies. National Autonomous University of Mexio.

Alberto Ortiz Brito's thesis, supervised by projet Co-PI Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, explores the Olmec cultural landscape taking a phenomenological and Religious Studies perspective. He considers key Olmec period sites located along the Gulf Coast, in the Central Mexican highlands, and in Guerrero. Ortiz combined archival research and traditional geographical analysis using GIS with observational visits to key Olmec period

57 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) sites. Ortiz centers on the celebration of the sacrality of water—to him each of the sites he visited in some way represent a place of hierophany connected to the presence of water— as the link between otherwise distinctive sites. Water and the relationship of water to life, argues Ortiz, is a core concern of Formative Mesoamerican religiosity, one that requires ritual intervention to ensure the proper functioning of the Olmec cosmos. In 2015, Ortiz traveled with project members von Nagy, Padilla, Schmitz, and Harvey, then undertaking laboratory research at UNAM, to visit Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Teopantecuanitlán, and La Organera Xochipala, as part of this research. In Oxtotitlán, Acatlán Community Archaeology Committee founder, Lic. Gabriel Lima Astudillo, joined with other project members during Ortiz's study of the environs of Oxtotitlán cave providing Ortiz with additional perspective.

Schmitz, Kirk (2018) Assessing the Utility of Dental Calculus in Paleodietary Analysis: A Case Study from West Mexico. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.

This thesis, facilitated by scholarly contacts developed out of this project, provides comparative context for Early through Middle Formative subsistence systems at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Stable isotope (C and N) analysis of dental calculus from 16 individuals from the West Mexican site of El Opeño, 420 kilometers to the north west, demonstrates the role of C4 plants (eg. Zea mays) in the Formative period diet of El Opeño and the broader region. Samples conform well to known maize agriculturalists. This study further validated the utility of patterned isotopic differences in dental calculus to signal shifts toward increased exploitation of C4 plants through d13C values and / or exploitation of high trophic level resources through d15N values. Isotopic analysis of dental calculus presents a non-destructive alternative to the analysis of osteological materials, and future research into ancient subsistence patterns in Guerrero and across Mesoamerica now have an additional proxy measure capable of signaling C4 plants, tropic level, and marine foods consumption.

Mary DeLand Pohl, Christopher L. von Nagy, Joseph Hellweg, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez, Jon Russ, Karen Steelman, Marvin Rowe, John M.D. Pohl. (In Press) “Dualism at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero.” In Nahuals and Nature Sorcery in Mesoamerica. J Coltman and John M D Pohl (eds) University of Colorado Press, Boulder, CO.

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Olmec paintings at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán’s mountain cave reveal the sharp intersection of natural and social environments. Raptor and jaguar animal doubles or nahuals linked emerging rulers with power inherent in a mythological, origin-themed landscape of mountains, caves, and life-giving water. Oxtotitlán Cave decodes ambitious imagery with which elite actors inscribed themselves on the landscape and claimed the forces of nature. Innovative Olmec cave paintings, along with labor-intensive stone carvings, show a fundamental faith in technology for effecting social transformation.

Pohl, Mary DeLand, David L. Lentz, Christopher L. von Nagy, Kevin O. Pope, “San Andrés and the Archaic Antecedents of Olmec Culture”, Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs, edited by Christopher Pool and Carl Wendt, Oxford University Press. In press.

This article takes a long-term, evolutionary perspective on cultigens and wild foods in the repertoire of inhabitants of the La Venta region of Tabasco, Mexico, with a special focus on investigating how prehistoric living strategies, drawing on global plant resources of Lowland Middle and South America, interfaced with dramatic changes in the natural environment from 5300-400 cal BC. Middle Archaic people at the site of San Andrés adopted archaic maize and manioc to complement marine resources afforded by the estuary and beach ridge habitats that they initially colonized. Five thousand years later Formative period Olmec people of the urban polity of La Venta, encompassing San Andrés, intensified occupation of the area, now transformed into a network of organic soils, river channels, and levees. They turned an evolved food palette with added cultivated squash, chili peppers, sunflower, and beans, along with tree fruits and deer and dog meat, into a recipe for ceremonialism and feasting that was the keystone of social complexity at La Venta, to be adopted by other cultures emulating elite Olmec lifeways.

Schmidt Schoenberg, Paul, Mary D. Pohl, Christopher L. von Nagy. “Quiotepec- Oxtotitlan: Olmec in Guerrero? When?” Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs, edited by Christopher Pool and Carl Wendt, Oxford University Press. In press

After Miguel Covarrubias proposed Guerrero as the area of Olmec origin, the first radiocarbon dates associated with Olmec remains from La Venta and San Lorenzo convinced most Mesoamericanists that Olmec beginnings lay in the Gulf Coast during the Early Formative period. Olmec-style objects occur throughout Guerrero and have been attributed mostly to the Middle Formative period, contemporaneous with La Venta on the Gulf Coast. The Olmec-style paintings at the Oxtotitlan cave, described first by

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David C. Grove, constitute the most prominent case. This article presents recent radiocarbon dates from two sites: the urban center of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlan and Baño Negro, a nearby small habitation site with some Olmec-style ceramics. These new dates suggest the Olmec presence here goes back to the Early Formative, requiring a new outlook on Olmec manifestations outside the Gulf Coast.

von Nagy, Christopher L. “The Eastern Olmec”, Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs, edited by Christopher Pool and Carl Wendt, Oxford University Press. In press.

The eastern margin of the traditional Olmec “heartand” of southern Veracruz and far western Tabasco, encompasses a vast region of extraordinarily productive delta lowlands within the entangled Grijalva and Usumacinta river deltas. Archaeological survey demonstrates that this region was heavily occupied by settled agriculturalists living in compact villages as early as 1400 BCE, if not earlier. By 1200 BCE, larger towns and, later, urban clusters emerged. Rich alluvial sediments and river levees made possible the cultivation of a wide range of crops that included maize, coyol, possibly manioc and cacao. Simultaneously, cyclic flooding of vast areas of low seasonal swamp interspersed with seasonal lakes provided extensive aquatic protein resources complimenting those available from the rivers, estuaries, and open ocean. This vast area, culturally connected to the larger Olmec centers of San Lorenzo (Veracruz), La Venta (Tabasco), and San Isidro (Chiapas) demonstrates economic and cultural ties to the Maya regions far to the east.

Computer programs

Christopher L. von Nagy (2012–2018) Miscellaneous software tools for the Urban Origins project

We developed incidental software scripts in Python, Wolfram, SQL, and Bash over the course of the project. While the development of software tools is not a primary aspect of our work, we have nonetheless made them or plan to make them accessible via a GitHub "Organization" accessible at https://github.com/Urban-Origins-project. We also have or plan to make available data and related software tools as appropriate at the archive for the Council for Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology (Consejo de Arqueología of INAH, Mexico), at DigiNole (FSU), at ScholarWorks (UNR),

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and at tDAR (University of Arizona, USA). Data may be accessed via DVDs at INAH archive. Data may be accessed on-line from DigiNole, ScholarWorks, and tDAR.

Conference papers and presentations

Pohl, Mary D, Christopher L von Nagy, and John M D Pohl (2013) “Olmec Rock Paintings at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico 1: Context and Concept of Rock Art in Middle Formative Cave Worship.” In Abstracts. International Federation of Rock Art Organizations 2013 Albuquerque New Mexico, edited by Robert G Bednarik, Herman Bender, Hipolito Collado Giraldo, Carol Diaz-Granados, José Julio García Arrorz, Mary A Gorden, Mavis Greer, Tang Huisheng, Jane Kolber, Lawrence Loendorf, Carolynne Merrell, Myles Miller, William Breen Murray, Edithe Pereira, Anne Q Stoll, Matthias Strecker, Carlos Viramontes Anzures, Steven J Waller, and Zhang Yasha, pp. 137. American Rock Art Research Association, Glendale, Arizona.

We analyze rock art and the ritual use of caves in Formative (1500-150 BCE) period Mesoamerica. The archaeological and iconographic records document the essential role of caves in prehistoric ritual practice. We center our discussion on the early painted murals in caves in western Mexico and the place of Oxtotitlán Cave within the context of this unusual artistic expression. We focus our analysis both on the unique imagery represented at Oxtotitlán and on the features that link these cave murals to the wider phenomenon of pan-Mesoamerican Olmec art. Our research probes the significance of cave paintings and cave worship in this critical period of evolving social hierarchies.

von Nagy, Christopher L, Joseph Gamble, and Mary D Pohl (2013) “Olmec Rock Paintings at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico 2: New High Resolution Photographic Documentation of Olmec Cave Art From Highland Guerrero, Mexico.” In Abstracts. International Federation of Rock Art Organizations 2013 Albuquerque New Mexico, edited by Robert G Bednarik, Herman Bender, Hipolito Collado Giraldo, Carol Diaz-Granados, José Julio García Arrorz, Mary A Gorden, Mavis Greer, Tang Huisheng, Jane Kolber, Lawrence Loendorf, Carolynne Merrell, Myles Miller, William Breen Murray, Edithe Pereira, Anne Q Stoll, Matthias Strecker, Carlos Viramontes Anzures, Steven J Waller, and Zhang Yasha, pp. 139–140. American Rock Art Research Association, Glendale, Arizona.

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We report on a series of new high resolution visible and infrared wavelength still and video images of murals and attendant rock art at the important Middle Formative site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico and at nearby Cahuaziziqui rock shelter. Careful natural light and balanced flash photography at Oxtotitlán Cave coupled with computational enhancement revealed new details and elements in a corpus that contains Archaic through Postclassic elements yet marks the beginnings of Mexico's mural tradition. Oxtotitlán Cave was the sacred eastern edge of the major Middle Formative town, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, and its art formed part of the visual vocabulary and semiotic space of this community. At Cahuaziziqui, too, a palimpsest of art dating to a variety of periods includes apparent Middle Formative components potentially linked to nearby settlements. Continuing imaging work at these sites, planned high-resolution documentation of the art of Juxtlahuaca cave, and contextualizing and comparative excavations at Oxtotitlán-Quiotepec will further enhance our understanding of the sacred landscape of ancient Guerrero and of the special role of caves within the region's emerging political economy. Our research followed crucial cleaning work by a team of Mexican national archaeologists and conservators and will provide an enhanced digital and print record of the art of Guerrero's sacred caves for scholarly, pedagogical, and local community use.

Hurst, Heather, and Leonard Ashby (2013) “Olmec Rock Paintings at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico 3: New Documentation through Archaeological Illustration.” In Abstracts. International Federation of Rock Art Organizations 2013 Albuquerque New Mexico, edited by Robert G Bednarik, Herman Bender, Hipolito Collado Giraldo, Carol Diaz- Granados, José Julio García Arrorz, Mary A Gorden, Mavis Greer, Tang Huisheng, Jane Kolber, Lawrence Loendorf, Carolynne Merrell, Myles Miller, William Breen Murray, Edithe Pereira, Anne Q Stoll, Matthias Strecker, Carlos Viramontes Anzures, Steven J Waller, and Zhang Yasha, pp. 137. American Rock Art Research Association, Glendale, Arizona.

As part of the recent research initiative examining the Oxtotitlán cave paintings, re- illustration presents new images of the ancient artworks. Building on the original documentation by David Grove in 1968, we created new archaeological illustrations. Detailed field drawings are combined with multispectral imaging data and analysis of painting technology to precisely record the art, even when lines are no longer visible to the naked eye. The drawings capture new art and refine previous iconography to provide

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a better understanding of the people who made the paintings and the activities that took place at this impressive site. New documentation and characterization of the art at Oxtotitlán sheds light on the development of later Mesoamerican iconographic systems and painting techniques.

Russ, John C, Marvin W. Rowe, Mary D Pohl, and Christopher L von Nagy (2013) “Olmec Rock Paintings at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico 4: Chemical Analysis.” In Abstracts. International Federation of Rock Art Organizations 2013 Albuquerque New Mexico, edited by Robert G Bednarik, Herman Bender, Hipolito Collado Giraldo, Carol Diaz-Granados, José Julio García Arrorz, Mary A Gorden, Mavis Greer, Tang Huisheng, Jane Kolber, Lawrence Loendorf, Carolynne Merrell, Myles Miller, William Breen Murray, Edithe Pereira, Anne Q Stoll, Matthias Strecker, Carlos Viramontes Anzures, Steven J Waller, and Zhang Yasha, pp. 138–139. American Rock Art Research Association, Glendale, Arizona.

We analyzed black and polychromatic cave paintings and pictographs at the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán site in Guerrero, Mexico using a portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer with two primary objectives: to establish the basic chemical composition of the various paint pigments and to identify areas of the paintings that could be sampled for radiocarbon analysis. We collected paint samples from three cave paintings for further chemical study. These include specimens from solid black paintings as well as from the large, C-1 Olmec-style cave painting painting. Here we report the results of these chemical studies.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2013) “Espejo del Paisaje. Integrando Datos de Alta Resolución de Teledetección y de LiDAR para Revelar la Ciudad Antigua Tabasqueña en Su Contexto.” (“Mirror of landscape. Integrating high-resolution remote sensing data and LiDAR to reveal the ancient Tabascan city in its context.”) Unpublished invited conference paper presented at the 2° Coloquio Tendencias de la Investigación Antropológica e Histórica en Tabasco. Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. November 25–29, 2013.

In this conference paper I discuss the applicability of a medium resolution (5m), publicly available, ground-surface LiDAR data set obtained from INEGI that, used in conjunction with high resolution GeoEYE-1 satellite imagery and other archival GIS data (eg. historic topographic maps realized for development projects and Shuttle radar altimetry data), reveal important geomorphological and archaeological features relevant

63 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) to the study of Olmec La Venta, its surrounding exurban hinterland, and the broader region. Used in conjunction, these data help characterize a changing paleo-fluvial landscape and provide detail relevant to the modeling of evolving systems of settlement around Olmec La Venta and within the larger Tabasco Coastal Plain. Further, the high- resolution ground surface elevation model allows for detailed modeling of response to sea-level change and shows, together with other data, that periods of paleo-sea-level highs based on existing but incomplete Gulf of Mexico sea-level reconstructions had a significant probability of impacting coastal settlement distribution in the Grijalva and Usumacinta deltas and also archaeological preservation though diverse mechanisms including the elevation of the water table into plant root zones, outright inundation, the triggering of significant avulsions, possibly involving major distributary channels, and fluvial and coastal erosion. Modeling further shows the probability of significant inundation of the coast in response to moderate to extreme predictions of sea-level rise as the century progresses. As La Venta lies within a river-estuary-delta ecotone, past sea- level fluctuation certainly impacted the ancient community and modern sea-level rise is of great concern. A 50cm sea-level rise significantly expands estuaries around La Venta. At 1m, La Venta becomes an island in an expansive estuary enveloping former pasture lands and archaeological sites that once surrounded the community.

Schmidt Schoenberg, Paul and Christopher L. von Nagy. (2014) Proyecto Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán (Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán Project). Invited Cátedra Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Lecture. National Institute of Anthropology and History, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico. April 3, 2014.

Drs. Schmidt Schoenberg and von Nagy presented our ongoing Quiotepec-Oxottitlán research and its broader context in the state of Guerrero to a mixed public and professional audience as a double lecture in the invited Cáteda Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Lectrue series held in Chilpancingo, Guerrero in the out-of-doors lecture space of the state regional center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to present our work in Spanish to Guerrero colleagues and to the broader public ithereby deepening appreciation of the archaeological resources of the state and understanding of the need to preserve those resources for future generations.

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Hurst, Heather (2015) “Revisioning the Relationship between Man and Jaguar: A Reassessment of the Olmec Paintings of Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico.” In Abstracts. 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA., April 15-19, 2015.

The rock art of the Oxtotitlán and Juxtlahuaca caves are among the earliest known examples of Mesoamerican figurative wall painting. As part of the recent research initiative examining the Oxtotitlán cave paintings, our re-illustration presents new images of the ancient artworks. We combine detailed field drawings with multispectral and computational imaging data and analysis of painting technology to precisely record the art, even when lines are no longer visible to the naked eye. Increased clarity of the calligraphic linework, better documentation of the uneven rock surface, and refinement of iconographic details significantly alters the style and content of some well-known images. The Oxtotitlán paintings are the work of experienced artists who were proficient in complex iconographic systems and talented in representation. We present the rock art at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán in context both within the cave site and among the stratigraphy of multiple painting events, as well as consider how previous archaeological documentation of these artworks has shaped notions of Olmec belief systems.

Russ, Jon, Karen L Steelman, Marvin W Rowe, Christopher L von Nagy, and Mary D Pohl (2016) “Chemical and Radiocarbon Analyses of Paint Samples from Oxtotitlán.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

The prehistoric rock paintings at Oxtotitlán cave on the eastern margin of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán site are thought to be among the earliest of Mexico and represent the beginning of the highly influential Mexican muralism tradition. Scholars base the proposed antiquity of the murals primarily on stylistic interpretation of the motifs represented in the paintings. We employed radiocarbon analyses of organic matter in the paint and of the biofilms covering paint layers to provide more direct evidence as to the ages of the cave paintings. We collected small paint chips from three cave paintings, including a black and red shield image, a deteriorated area without a decipherable motif (painting C-2, and from the polychromatic Raptor Lord cave painting (painting C-1). We collected samples from non-painted surfaces adjacent to the paintings to provide background information. We employed two strategies to determine or constrain the ages of the artifacts. In the first we extracted organic carbon directly from the paint using a

65 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) low-temperature oxygen plasma, followed by converting it to carbon dioxide and subsequently cryogenically isolating the gas for the AMS radiocarbon analysis. In cases where the paint did not contain datable organic carbon or the background deemed too high, we radiocarbon dated the calcium oxalate biofilm covering the paint to provide a minimum age of the cave painting.

Schmitz, Kirk, Amanda R Harvey, Christopher L von Nagy, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2016) “Contextualizing the Art: Excavations at Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, Mexico.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

We present findings from the 2014-2015 field seasons of the Urban Origins Project at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico. We conducted an extensive survey coupled with topographic and drone-based mapping and undertook excavations at the cave and on site terraces. We placed excavation units in association with the cave paintings, at the mouth of the rockshelter in the northern part of the Oxtotitlán cave complex, and in the botanical garden within the protected component of the archaeological site. Units in the rockshelter revealed cultural material that differed from that of the botanical garden, suggesting specialized use of space. Both lithic and ceramic analyses indicate intense activity during the Middle and Late Formative Periods, and exhibit ties to local cultural complexes as well as long distance interaction and trade. In particular, stylistic elements of the art and aspects of the ceramic assemblage resemble contemporaneous material culture from the greater Isthmian area and Central Mexico but most notably from Chalcatzingo in the Morelos highlands. Future plans guided by these excavations include the placement of new units in unstudied areas to further document ritual behavior at the cave in support of scholarship and the Acatlán communities’s preservation and education program at Oxtotitlán cave.

Hurst, Heather, and Leonard Ashby (2016) “Sketching in the Shadows: Re-illustration of the Olmec Paintings of Oxtotitlán, Mexico.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

Our re-illustration of the well-known cave paintings at Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico reveals important new iconographic details. Our use of multispectral and computational imagery, as well as direct observation following recent conservation work, contributed to re-visioning the artworks with increased clarity and accuracy to the originals. Here we

66 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg present new renderings of the Olmec-period paintings and summarize observations on artistic practice and iconographic significance that resulted from this project.

von Nagy, Christopher L, Mary D Pohl, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, and Isaac Lima Astudillo (2016) “The Urban Origins Project at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán, Guerrero.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

We report on-going archaeological research since 2012 by the Urban Origins Project at the large Early to Late Formative site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, best known for Oxtotitlán Cave and its associated Middle to Late Formative polychrome cave paintings. Our goal is twofold: to develop a richly detailed documentation of the art and its physical and chronological context at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and to investigate the political- economic underpinnings of the artistic production and possible elements of a ritual economy at the site and within the broader region. Over the course of three seasons of research, we focused on the development of a new, high resolution and three- dimensional record of the art and its immediate archaeological context, as well as the study of the larger Formative community in the surrounding region. Our research included satellite and drone-based remote sensing, ground mapping, geophysical prospection, and exploratory excavations. In this paper, we discuss our use of photogrammetric and structure-in-motion techniques coupled with micro drone-based aerial survey to develop a detailed three-dimensional map of the site and its natural and architectural details as one element of our broader research at the ancient community.

Pohl, Mary D, Christopher L von Nagy, Joseph Gamble, Gabriel Lima Astudillo, and Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez (2016) “What is Oxtotitlán Cave Communicating?” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

What is Oxtotitlán Cave Communicating? Cave art, painted in Olmec style with iconographic links to the major Gulf coast center of La Venta, appear to communicate the dynamism of interregional relationships in an era of rising urbanism. The paintings seem to evoke the evolution of hierarchical positioning among political and religious actors. They might reveal the tools for local and long-distance power building. Yet the work that has clarified the nature of Oxtotitlán Cave and its associated site of Quiotepec has extended the enigma of the cave paintings. Our dating of both the cave paintings and

67 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) carbon recovered from archaeological excavations verifies the Middle Formative chronological timeline. The cleaning of the cave paintings conducted by Mexican government conservators and our own intensive photographic documentation have revealed new figural details that strengthen visual associations with La Venta’s sophisticated carved stone monuments. On the other hand, other aspects of the paintings and especially the material culture coming forth from excavations in both Oxtotitlán Cave and at Quiotepec continue to be local to Guerrero with significant links to Central Mexico and much more tenuous traces of contact with the Gulf Coast. What is Oxtotitlán’s message and meaning?

Paul Schmidt and Eliseo Padilla (2016) “Radiocarbon dates from Baño Negro and Cerro Quiotepec, Chilapa, Guerrero.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016.

Recent dates from two sites in the Chilapa area of the Montaña Baja of Guerrero state, Baño Negro and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, throw light on the Formative horizon temporality in the area, including the Oxtotitlán rock shelter. Baño Negro ceramics indicate continuous Early through Late Formative occupation, and the radiocarbon dates confirm Early Formative occupation, perhaps earlier than previously thought.

Harvey, Amanda R, Kirk Schmitz, Christopher L von Nagy, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Mary D Pohl, and Evan Pellegrini (2016) “A Differential Diagnosis of a Formative Period Mandible.” In Abstracts. 43rd Annual North American Meeting of the Paleopathology Association Atlanta, Georgia. April 12-13, 2016.

We recovered a human mandible fragment at Oxtotitlán cave in Guerrero, Mexico during the 2014 field season of the Urban Origins Project. The cave forms part of a larger Middle to Late Formative Period site, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. Material culture analyses indicate intense activity during site occupation and exhibit ties to local cultural complexes, as well as long distance trade. Found at the mouth of a rockshelter in the northern part of the cave complex, the mandible constitutes one of two fragments of human remains from the cave. Because we eschewed metal tools during excavation and because the poorly sorted matrix constitutes a dry, fine silty loam with stones ranging from small cobbles to large boulders, the mandible demonstrates possibly minimal post- deposition alteration. Analysis reveals multifaceted human manipulation of the fragment. We present three factors—polishing, marks, and discoloration—to the larger

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paleopathology community for differential diagnosis. Equifinal processes form areas of polishing on bone, and polish on the fragment potentially correlates with rubbing, abrasion, constant touch (similar to lab specimens), or natural taphonomic processes. We observe marks near the mental foramen, similar to cut marks, root marks, bug burrowing, or even possibly rock abrasions. We also observe discoloration, grey in nature, supplemented by white and black areas possibly the result of direct heat, indirect heat, soil magnesium oxide, or other yet-to-be identified taphonomic processes associated with the cave. With the goal of obtaining unbiased diagnoses, we seek to discuss our conclusions in person, and, together the paleopathology community to jointly create a better understanding of the mandible’s significance within the larger site context.

Harvey, Amanda R., Kirk Schmitz, Christopher L. von Nagy, Eliseo Padilla-Gutiérrez, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Mary D. Pohl (2016) “A Differential Diagnosis of a Formative Period Mandible.” First Annual Graduate Student Poster Competition, University of Nevada, Reno. November 14, 2016.

During the 2014 field season of the Urban Origins Project, we recovered a human mandible fragment at Oxtotitlán cave in Guerrero, Mexico. The cave, part of a larger Middle to Late Formative Period site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, saw intense activity during its occupation. And material culture analyses indicate ties to local cultural complexes, as well as long distance trade. We recovered the mandible at the mouth of a rockshelter in the northern part of the cave complex. Together with one other fragmentary human remain (a rib), the mandible constitutes the only human remains from the cave. We did not employ metal tools during the excavation of the poorly sorted soil matrix in which the mandible was found, a dry, fine silty loam with stones ranging from small cobbles to large boulders. The mandible presents evidence of multifaceted human manipulation. We showcased three factors—polishing, marks, and discoloration—to the larger paleopathology community for differential diagnosis and discussion. Polishing on the fragment may derive from rubbing, abrasion, constant touch (similar to lab specimens), or other, natural taphonomic processes. Marks, near the mental foramen, appear similar to cut marks, root marks, bug burrowing, or even possibly rock abrasions. The discoloration, grey in nature and supplemented by white and black areas, suggests exposure to direct heat, indirect heat, soil magnesium oxide, or other taphonomic factors associated with the cave. We discussed our conclusions in person with the goal of obtaining unbiased diagnoses and jointly creating a better understanding of the mandible’s significance within the larger site context.

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von Nagy, Christopher, Mary D Pohl, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Kirk Schmitz, Amanda R Harvey, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, and Isaac Lima Astudillo (2018) “Red Sky / Black Earth. The Urban Origins Project at Quiotepec-Oxtotilán, Guerrero, Mexico.” In Abstracts. Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies Conference, Reno Nevada. April 4–7, 2018.

In this video presentation, we represent on-going archaeological research since 2012 at the large Early to Late Formative site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, best known for Oxtotitlán Cave and its associated Middle to Late Formative Olmec-style polychrome cave paintings. Through the project we aim to develop a richly detailed documentation of the art and its physical and chronological context at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán and to investigate the political economic underpinnings of the artistic production and possible elements of a ritual economy at the site and within the broader region. Over the course of six seasons of research, we focused on the development of a new, high resolution and three-dimensional record of the art and its immediate archaeological context, as well as the study of the larger Formative community in the surrounding region. Our research encompasses the computational photographic documentation and direct dating of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings and pictographs, satellite and drone-based remote sensing, ground mapping, geophysical prospection, and exploratory excavations. In this presentation, we present an overview of research and highlight the site and region's interconnections to Formative Mesoamerica.

Joshua D. Englehardt, Michael D. Carrasco, and Mary D. Pohl (2016) “New Perspectives on Gulf Coast Olmec Iconography and Scripts via the Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing.” In Abstracts. 81st annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, FL. April 6-10, 2016.

The rich visual culture of the Formative Period Gulf Coast Olmec has long been recognized as playing a foundational role in the origins and development of subsequent Mesoamerican writing systems and artistic traditions. Nonetheless, Formative Period visual cultures remain relatively understudied, as does their role in and impact on the emergence of regional script systems, the developmental dynamics of which continue to elude adequate explanation. To advance the field’s understanding of script development, since 2010, we undertook to construct a comprehensive database of Middle Formative iconography and scripts. This database builds on the work of colleagues to expand—and expand access to—the known corpus of Formative Period art and writing. Further, we

70 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg continue to actively develop a mobile device application and website for visualizing complex relationships among datasets, including multimedia, spatial, and temporal information. Finally, we employ new imaging and digitalization techniques on archaeological objects, which has, in some cases, revealed previously undetected iconographic details on monuments such as La Venta’s iconic Altar Four. In this paper we present examples of ongoing work, project outcomes, and insights gleaned from efforts to date.

Joshua D. Englehardt, Michael D. Carrasco, and Mary D. Pohl (2015) “Nuevos Trazos de la Iconografia Olmeca del Periodo Formativo.” (“New Traits of Olmec Iconography from the Formative Period.”) Unpublished invited conference paper presented at the Colloquio de la Investigación Antropológica e Histórica en Tabasco. Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. November, 2015.

We assess results of innovative methods of documenting monuments from the major Gulf Coast site of La Venta. We show how the application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) reveals greatly enhanced details compared with traditional photographic methods. Our imaging work reveals substantial deterioration of monuments over the 50 years that they have been on display in an archaeological park and the need for conservation efforts. The new data show details of the sculptures previously unknown.

Conferences and seminars

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby. (2016) Oxtotitlán Summit. Analysis of Photography and Artistic Renderings of Middle Formative Cave Paintings, Guerrero, Mexico. Washington, D.C. June 2016.

Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Christopher L. von Nagy, and Mary D. Pohl met for three days in Washington, DC, to analyze photographs of Oxtotitlán Cave and discuss interpretations of the art. This focused conference allowed for the clarification of essential details in Hurst's artistic renderings of the paintings. Ancient cave art such as that at Oxtotitlán cave often presents interpretive ambiguities in places given the vicissitudes of preservation.

71 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) von Nagy, Christopher L, and Mary D Pohl (2016) “Cave Art and Archaeology at Oxtotitlán, Guerrero. Session and seminar.” In Abstracts of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL., April 6-10, 2016. Participants: Christopher L. von Nagy, Mary D Pohl, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, Eliseo F Padilla Gutiérrez, Jon Russ, Heather Hurst, Leonard Ashby, Kirk Schmitz, Amanda R Harvey.

Oxtotitlán Cave, renowned for a corpus of Formative polychrome murals, is the focus of recent NGS and NEH-funded collaborative research involving scholars from several U.S. institutions, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and representatives of the archaeological committee from the modern community of Acatlán, Guerrero, where the site is located. The cave, one element of a large Early to Late Formative settlement encompassing nearby terraced hillslopes and surrounding settlement zones, is a primary focal point of recent investigations. Research unites the high resolution photographic, computational, photogrammetric documentation, and technical drawings of the art with the archaeological study of the cave and larger site. Our current research builds on earlier work undertaken by David Grove, Paul Schmidt, Sandra Cruz Flores, and other UNAM and INAH-affiliated archaeologists and conservators. In this session, we discuss the on- going results of the mural documentation project, a program to date the art employing micro sample AMS radiocarbon dating, excavations both in association with the art and elsewhere at the site, and the drone-based photogrammetric survey of the entire complex within its geographical setting.

Courses and curriculum material

Pohl, Mary and Christopher L. von Nagy. (2012) Ancient Mesoamerica: Sacrifice and Rituals of Fecundity (ARH 5806) Graduate Seminar on Sacrifice in Mesoamerica. Florida State University, Tallahassee. Spring 2012.

In this graduate-level seminar course, we examined a central theme in ancient Mesoamerican culture: fertility rituals associated with a diverse set of acts of sacrifice broadly construed. In discussion with the students, we examined the diverse range and practices of sacrifice known historically and archaeologically in Mesoamerica, as well as sacrifice in broader comparative and inter-religious context. Both Olmec La Venta and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán are prime cases for study for the early manifestation of the cycle of activities reflected archaeologically and visual representations related to "sacrifice".

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Questions raised and insights gained from our discussions helped to guide our work both in Tabasco and in Guerrero.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2014) Ancient American Civilization (ANTH 440/640). University of Nevada, Reno. Fall 2014.

Our research at La Venta, Tabasco and Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero serves as a point of departure for the study of the Formation of urbanized, complex polities in Mesoamerica and networks of interactivity between them in this undergraduate / graduate-level course on the indigenous city in the Americas taught by Dr. von Nagy at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. von Nagy incorporated a survey of a variety of emerging techniques utilized in this project (3D photogrammetric modeling, 3D photogrammetric contextualization, RTI imaging, multi-spectral computational imaging of paintings, novel computational techniques for the study of color and form using tools such as Mathematica, and close-range UAV photogrammetric aerial survey) as part of the course. Several students then went on to participate in our project work and/or apply some of these new techniques to their own research.

White, Carolyn with Christopher L. von Nagy (2015) Independent Readings Course (ANTH 701). University of Nevada, Reno. Spring 2015.

In this historic archaeology-focused graduate readings class, Dr. von Nagy re- employed techniques, processes, and software tools developed as part of the high resolution, UAV-based (drone) photogrammetric survey program at Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán, Guerrero to train a student, Mr. Adam Calkins, for a research project at the now abandoned historic Nevada mining town of Aurora. Mr. Calkins developed expertise in UAV programming, aerial photo survey, photogrammetric 3D topographic model construction, model geo-coordinate registration, high-resolution texture mapping, and analysis of these complex, three-dimensional images and related orthophotos of archaeological sites. While not a direct outcome of our Mexico research, Mr. Calkins went on to complete a Master's thesis on Aurora, Nevada while at UNR employing the techniques and skills he developed in the course to gain insight into the structure of the nineteenth century mining town. At present, Mr. Calkins works in cultural resource management and participates in research to extend UAV photogrammetric survey potential though the use of semi-automated analysis and classification of resultant imagery.

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von Nagy, Christopher L. 2018. Dancers, Farmers, and Jaguars. The May Festivals at Acatlán, Guerrero. Video presentation to Introduction to Religious Studies, University of Nevada, Reno. January 2017, August 2017, and January 2018.

Dr. von Nagy developed a short, minimally polished documentary product for use in his Introduction to Religious Studies class at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. von Nagy obtained documentary video footage and time lapse still images of several aspects of the project at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán over the course of multiple field seasons, notably focusing on the process of studying the cave paintings, the UAV aerial survey, excavations, and ethnographic aspects of community life at Oxtotitlán cave and at other locations within the greater Acatlán community. Here, the May 1–4 ceremonies associated with the bringing of rain (anciently concerned with the rain deity, Tlaloc), are documented in Acatlán and at a mountain shrine location. Mountain top shrines are ancestrally associated with Tlaloc and the rains. Students analyzed the film as an exercise in characterizing religious traditions, ritual processes, community feasting, and sacrifice at the beginning of class, and the video serves as a touchstone through the class as these themes are addressed.

Databases and archives

von Nagy, Christopher L., and Mary D Pohl (2013) Proyecto Laguna Costera. (PLC) Estudios Sobre los Orígenes y la Evolución de la Ciudad Mesoaméricana en San Andrés, Tabasco, México. Base de datos. (The Coastal Lake Project. Studies of the Origin and Evolution of the Mesoamerican City at San Andrés, Tabasco, Mexico.) Final database archive.

We have or plan to make available data in SQL and CSV formats and as appropriate at the archive for the Council for Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology (Consejo de Arqueología of INAH, Mexico). We deposit copies at DigiNols (FSU), ScholarWorks (UNR), and tDAR (University of Arizona, USA). Data may be accessed via DVDs at INAH archive. As available, data may be accessed on-line from DigiNols, ScholarWorks, and tDAR. Final databases for ceramics, flaked stone, ground stone, figurines, zooarchaeological, paleobotanical, daub, and asphalt artifacts and materials from San Andrés, Tabasco. PLC project materials are the result of an early cycle of research at the Formative site of San Andrés, Tabasco located within the exurban hinterland of the La Venta Olmec polity.

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von Nagy, Christopher L., Mary D Pohl, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2018–2020) Urban Origins Project Data Archive.

We have or plan to make data available in SQL and CVS formats or as appropriate at the archive for the Council for Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology (Consejo de Arqueología of INAH, Mexico). Data will be available following an embargo period at DigiNols (FSU), ScholarWorks (UNR), and at tDAR (University of Arizona, USA). Data may be accessed via DVDs at INAH archive. Data may be accessed on-line from DigiNols, ScholarWorks, and tDAR. Final databases for GIS and 3D photogrammetrics, computational imagery, ceramics, flaked stone, ground stone, figurines, shell, archaezoological, paleobotanical, pigment, and woven artifacts and materials from Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. In preparation.

Additional subsets of data will be available through the project pedagogical web site.

Film, TV, video broadcasts and recordings

Windfall Films, Ltd. (2018) “The Olmec.” Episode of the Unearthed television series to be broadcast later this year. Science channel.

Dr. von Nagy participated in the production of a documentary on the Olmec by UK- based Windfall Films showcasing the Urban Origin project's contribution to our understanding of the evolution of writing in Mesoamerica. The documentary, to be aired in the popular Science channel series, Unearthed, surveys the Olmec of the Gulf Coast and connects developments such as the emergence of complex iconography and early developments in writing to broader, later Mesoamerican traditions. In a segment on the San Andrés cylinder stamp, Dr. von Nagy compares early examples of mid-First Millennium BCE writing to later examples, notably Tres Zapotes Stela C. He also discusses our on-going work in re-dating the artifact using a broader set of radiocarbon samples and Bayesian techniques. The series popularizes archaeological research through extensive use of CGI. Dr. von Nagy undertakes an experimental rollout employing a 3D printed replica of the San Andrés cylinder stamp. We graciously acknowledge the University of South Florida Libraries for providing 3D printed models for filming use.

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Public Lectures and presentations

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2012) Señores de Rapiña y Quimeras Sagradas. / Raptor Lords and Sacred Quimeras. Invited Spanish-language public lecture on research at Oxtotitlán- Quiotepec, Guerrero, Mexico. Department of World Languages. University of Nevada, Reno. November, 2012.

Dr. von Nagy presented our on-going research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán to a public audience at the University of Nevada, Reno in this Spanish language lecture. Focusing on his computational imaging and the re-illustrating of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings by Hurst and Ashby, the audience gained an appreciation for the complexities presented to the archaeologist when working with ancient painted art exposed to the elements over millennia and the possibilities offered by new technologies to recover degraded components of such art.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2013) Once Upon a Future – Time, History, and Prognostication. Invited Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) lecture on Mesoamerica art, calendrics, and prognostication. February, 2013.

Dr. von Nagy presented aspects of our on-going Urban Origins project work focused primarily on the emergence and nature of writing in Ancient Mesoamerica to an audience of returning, emeritus students as part of a lecture series hosted by UNR's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2013) Raptor Lords and Sacred Quimeras. Invited lecture on research at Oxtotitlán-Quiotepec. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. University of Nevada, Reno. October, 2013.

Dr. von Nagy presented our on-going research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán as part of UNR's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) regular lecture series. Focusing on his computational imaging and the re-illustrating of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings by Hurst and Ashby, the audience gained an appreciation for the complexities presented to the archaeologist when working with ancient painted art exposed to the elements over millennia and the possibilities offered by new technologies to recover degraded components of such art.

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Schmidt Schoenberg, Paul and Christopher L. von Nagy. (2014) Proyecto Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán (Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán Project). Invited Cátedra Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Lecture. National Institute of Anthropology and History, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico. April 3, 2014.

Drs. Schmidt Schoenberg and von Nagy presented our ongoing Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán research and its broader context in the state of Guerrero to a mixed public and professional audience as a double lecture in the invited Cátedra Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Lecture series held in Chilpancingo, Guerrero in the out-of-doors lecture space of the state regional center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to present our work in Spanish to Guerrero colleagues and to the broader public thereby deepening appreciation of the archaeological resources of the state and understanding of the need to preserve those resources for future generations.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2014) Drone-based Remote Sensing at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero. Public lecture. October 23, 2014.

Dr. von Nagy presented on UAV survey and mapping at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán during the annual Field Work Night of the Anthropology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Pohl, Mary D. (2015) Oxtotitlán Cave Paintings and Olmec Connections. Invited public lecture, Florida State University Anthropology Society. April, 2015.

This presentation Investigates the long prehistory of painting in Mesoamerica, starting with Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, starting at 1500 B.C.. Connections are dawn with mural painting among the later Maya. Contemporary street art in Latino communities of the United States are seen as descendants of early art of Mexico and Guatemala.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2015–2016) The Early City in Mesoamerica / The Mesoamerican World. Unpublished curriculum, lecture, and Harkness seminar on Formative Mesoamerica. Sage Ridge School. October 2015 and October 2016.

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Dr. von Nagy employed select materials from our research at La Venta, Tabasco and Quiotepec, Guerrero to develop the idea of urbanization and social complexification in this high school-level lecture and Harkness-style seminar. Students studied Olmec- period art from Mesoamerica, what we know of its context, and formed ideas concerning the art and changing political-economic context that they discussed in seminar. This seminar forms part of a sequence on Ancient America that is part of a course on pre- Renaissance global civilization(s) and closely links with a second Harkness-style seminar and workshop on writing in ancient Mesoamerica in which research by the project also formed part of the curriculum.

von Nagy, Christopher L. (2016) Voces tallados; Voces tejidos. (Carved voices / Woven voices) Invited Spanish-language public lecture. Department of World Languages. University of Nevada, Reno. November, 2016.

Dr. von Nagy presented aspects of research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán to a public audience at the University of Nevada, Reno in this Spanish language lecture. Focusing on visual vocabularies both in Mesoamerica and in the Ancient Andes, the audience gained an appreciation for the diversity of artistic traditions and semiotic potentials in the Ancient Americas.

von Nagy, Christopher L. Señores de Rapiña y Quimeras Sagradas. / Raptor Lords and Sacred Quimeras. Lectrure. (2017) Lecture and discussion. Introduction to Indigenous Literature in the Americas. Sage Ridge School. November, 2017.

Dr. von Nagy presented our on-going research at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán to students of Sage Ridge School. Focusing on his computational imaging and the re-illustrating of the Oxtotitlán cave paintings by Hurst and Ashby, the students gained an appreciation for the complexities presented to the archaeologist when working with ancient painted art exposed to the elements over millennia and the possibilities offered by new technologies to recover degraded components of such art.

Reports

von Nagy, Christopher and Mary D. Pohl. (April 2013) Proyecto Laguna Costera Estudios sobre los orígenes y la evolución de la ciudad mesoaméricana en San Andrés,

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Tabasco, México. (PLC. Studies of the Origin and Evolution of the Mesoamerican City. San Andrés, Tabasco, México.) Unpublished technical report. Archive of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), México. (Spanish)

This report, written by Christopher L. von Nagy, summarizes the significant contributions of the predecessor project to the Urban Origins Project, the Proyecto Laguna Costera (Coastal Lake Project, PLC). He wrote the report for submission to national archaeological authorities in Mexico in preparation for the submission of a field work proposal for a new round of NEH-funded research under the auspices of the Urban Origins Project grant. Dr. Mary D. Pohl and Dr. Kevin Pope inaugurated the PLC project in 1998 with an initial round of excavations at the Olmec site of San Andrés, part of the exurban settlement complex on the outskirts of Olmec La Venta. Dr. von Nagy served as the project ceramicist during its initial two field seasons and several seasons of subsequent laboratory work and then continued analysis together with Dr. Pohl. Von Nagy situates San Andrés as part of the La Venta polity and within the larger Olmec world, outlines the Formative (Preclassic) ceramic and radiocarbon sequence for La Venta, and discusses the contribution of the project and data from San Andrés to the understanding of the evolving Olmec political-economy with its apparent heavy focus on ritual and symbol (a ritual economy). He also examines aspects of figurative symbolism, for example the representation of pregnancy and death among the typically female figurine corpus. He summarizes archaeological data derived from the 1998 and 199 excavations and subsequent analyses and presents project material cultural, paleobotanical, and zooarchaeological datasets in long-term archival format. Von Nagy employs new data developed for the proposed new round of research at San Andrés and in the broader La Venta hinterland, including 3D modeling of the San Andrés site based on unpublished auger data, remote sensed products generated from GeoEye-1 data, and new analyses of extant radiocarbon dates. The report incorporates preliminary comparative conclusions from a 2012 field season at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán in Guerrero. We submitted the report on DVDs containing these datasets and SQL code to recreate project databases to the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The DVDs and print versions of the report are available in the archive of the Council for Archaeology (Consejo de Arqueología) of the Institute. (Spanish)

Pohl, Mary D, Christopher L von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2013) Proyecto Origenes de la Ciudad Mesoamericana. Ritualidad Y Política en La Venta, Tabasco, México. Proyecto Origines Urbanos. Propuesta para investigaciones. (The Origins of the Mesoamerican

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City Project. Rituality and Politics at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. The Urban Origins Project. Research Proposal.) Unpublished proposal for field research during the 2012– 2013 grant year. Archive of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), México. (Spanish)

In this proposal to the National Institute of Anthropology and History we seek permission to undertake a fist field season of a new round of archaeological investigations within the exurban area of La Venta, particularly at San Andrés, and within the larger Olmec La Venta polity hinterland. We propose a three year course of research to refine the underlying chronological model by expanding the available material culture sample and associated radiocarbon sample set, to further understanding of coastal Olmec patterns of subsistence through the collection of paleobotanical, micro botanical, and zooarchaeological data from a diverse range of sites to complement the San Andrés dataset, to refine the understanding of Olmec households in the region in terms of spatial structure, household economy, and broader economic connections, and test the hypothesis that La Venta, like other archaic cities, had an economy heavily grounded in rituality (a "ritual economy"), gift exchange, and elite manufacture. GIS, LiDAR, and remote-sensed imagery analysis by Christopher L. von Nagy served as a starting point for site selection and the analysis the changing landscape of this deltaic region. Christopher L. von Nagy primarily authored this proposal. (Spanish)

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2013) Interim Report 2013 — Origins of the Mesoamerican City. Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Unpublished annual interim report. Florida State University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Tallahasse, FL, November 30. National Endowment for the Humanities.

We summarize our accomplishments and challenges experienced in the field during the first grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2012–2013. We successfully obtained permission from national archaeological authorities in Mexico for the continuation of our program of research at and within the hinterland of Olmec La Venta located in the modern Mexican state of Tabasco. Christopher L. von Nagy prepared a detailed summary report of research at the exurban site of San Andrés undertaken by Mary D. Pohl, von Nagy, and others since 1998. In the process of developing the required research proposal for field research in 2013, Dr. von Nagy and Dr. Joshua Englehardt (Center for Archaeological Studies of the College of Michoacán, (El Colegio de

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Michoacán)) undertook field reconnaissance of the La Venta hinterland and visited a number of sites to secure or confirm access from property holders and to document landscape features and site contexts. Later, once we formally secured permission to undertake an initial round of excavations, Dr. von Nagy and Mstro. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)) returned to Tabasco. Conditions in the state prevented an immediate initiation of planned excavations, and the project sought and the NEH granted permission to switch the primary site of our investigations to Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán where we had parallel research at the time. We continued to gather important information while in the field in Tabasco, focusing on documenting important elements of the deeper resource hinterland of La Venta, particularly areas from which La Venta obtained andesitic materials for the manufacture of domestic ground stone tools (from the area of the Chichonal volcano) and possibly obtained other important resources, eg. volcanic ash for fine ceramics. We summarize other accomplishments, such as the development of a GIS database for the La Venta region and the preparation of assets for a planned Digital La Venta web site. Christopher L. von Nagy primarily authored the report. (English)

Pohl, Mary D, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, and Christopher L von Nagy (2014) Ritualidad y Política en Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, México. Proyecto Orígenes de la Ciudad Mesoamericana. Proyecto Orígenes Urbanos. Propuesta para Investigaciones. (Rituality and Politics at Quiotepec-Oxtotilán, Guerrero, Mexico. The Origins of the Mesoamerican City project. Urban Origins Project. Proposal for Research.). Unpublished proposal for field research during the 2013–2014 grant year. Archive of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), México. (Spanish)

In this proposal, we request permission from the Council for Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History to undertake field research, supported by the NEH grant, at the Guerrero site of Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. We propose to begin a cycle of new archaeological and art historical research at the site. The proposed work is intended to further develop work undertaken by Paul Schmidt Schoenberg over the course of several field seasons in the Chilapa-Zitlala valley, as well as adjacent valleys that had as its primary focus the elucidation of the nature of regional settlement and its chronology, and work undertaken at Oxtotitlán cave by Mary D. Pohl and Christopher L. von Nagy with the intent to re-document and contextualize the important Olmec period cave paintings there. We specifically propose to continue the program of cave

81 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) painting and pictograph documentation, undertake a series of contextualizing excavations at the cave and of other components of the larger site, improve the dating of both the art and of the occupation of the larger site and region, and complete a high resolution UAV survey and photogrammetric study of the site and surrounding area to accurately document the structure of the site, locate architecture, and as a basis for planning future work focused on a cross-section of household and other activity areas. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand the nature of the ancient Quiotepec- Oxtotitlán community, the nature of its political-economic organization and the role of the ritual economy in ancient Mesoamerica, the ancient community's economic interconnections with other major south Mexican Olmec polity centers, and the significance of Olmec style art and iconography to the ancient polities and politics of the region. Christopher L. von Nagy primarily authored this proposal. (Spanish)

von Nagy, Christopher L, Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, and Mary D Pohl (2015) Ritualidad y Política en Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, México. Informe de Investigaciones del Campo (2014) y Resultados Preliminares de los Analices en Curso. Proyecto Orígenes de la Ciudad Mesoamericana. Proyecto Orígenes Urbanos. (Rituality and Politics at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico. Report on Field Investigations and On-going Analyses. Origins of the Mesoamerican City Project. Urban Origins Project.) Unpublished technical report. Archive of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), México. (Spanish)

In this report, we summarize our accomplishments in the field during the second grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2013–2014. We successfully obtained permission from national archaeological authorities in Mexico for continued research at our second project field study site, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero. We review our development of a GIS database of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán region and site, including the UAV-based close range remapping of terraces and other site features. We review a major field season of survey, UAV-imaging, topographic mapping, geophysical prospection, excavation, and continued high-resolution imaging of the significant Olmec period cave paintings at the site. We also review continuing research into the nature and dating of pigment samples taken from the cave paintings during a 2012 field season by project geochemists, Jon Russ and Marvin Rowe, and University of Arkansas archaeological chemist, Karen Steelman. Christopher L. von Nagy primarily authored this report. (Spanish)

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Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2014) Interim Report 2014 — Origins of the Mesoamerican City. Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Unpublished annual interim report. Florida State University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Tallahasse, FL, October 20. National Endowment for the Humanities.

We summarize our accomplishments in the field during the second grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2013–2014. We successfully obtained permission from national archaeological authorities in Mexico for continued research at our second project field study site, Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero. We review our development of a GIS database of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán region and site, including the UAV-based close range remapping of terraces and other site features. We review a major field season of survey, UAV-imaging, topographic mapping, geophysical prospection, excavation, and continued high-resolution imaging of the significant Olmec period cave paintings at the site. We also review continuing research into the nature and dating of pigment samples taken from the cave paintings during a 2012 field season by project geochemists, Jon Russ and Marvin Rowe, and University of Arkansas archaeological chemist, Karen Steelman. Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl primarily authored this report. (English)

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2015) Interim Report 2015 — Origins of the Mesoamerican City. Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Unpublished annual interim report. Florida State University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Tallahasse, FL, January 8. National Endowment for the Humanities.

We summarize our accomplishments during the third grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2014–2015. We traveled to the community of Acatlán, Guerrero, where the project field site is located, to undertake ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological studies of the Nahuatl-speaking native community's early May festivals related to the initiation of the rainy season and primary agricultural planting season. We initiated focused lab work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico where project co-director Christopher L. von Nagy, assisted by co-director Paul Schmidt Schoenberg, lead a team of students in the initial analysis of excavated and surface collected archaeological materials from Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán. We continued to work on

83 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12) the development of the project GIS database, high resolution archaeological and art historical imagery, the re-illustration of Oxtotitlán cave paintings, and the dating of the cave art through direct means. We exported archaeological samples to scholars in the United States for specialist analysis (eg. paelobotanical and zooarchaeoligcal materials) and undertook radiocarbon dating of samples from Quiotepec-Oxtotilán and from our Tabasco field location. Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl primarily authored this report. (English)

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2016) Interim Report 2016 — Origins of the Mesoamerican City. Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Unpublished annual interim report. Florida State University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Tallahasse, FL, January 30. National Endowment for the Humanities.

We summarize our accomplishments during the fourth grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2015–2016. During 2016 we organized two project-focused symposia, one in Washington DC to allow project members to review and advance work on the re-illustration and high resolution documentation of key Olmec period cave paintings from Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, and the second at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Orlando, Florida, where we presented the on-going results of our project to professional peers. We report on the successful dating of Oxtotitlán cave paintings, continued material culture research on archaeological samples excavated by the project and by National Institute of Anthropology and History archaeologists at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, and bioarchaeological analysis and presentation of findings by graduate students working with the project. Mary D. Pohl and Christopher L. von Nagy are the reports's primary authors. (English)

Pohl, Mary D., Christopher L. von Nagy, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (2018) Interim Report 2017 — Origins of the Mesoamerican City. Ritual and Polity at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Unpublished annual interim report. Florida State University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Tallahasse, FL, April 22. National Endowment for the Humanities.

We summarize our accomplishments during the fifth grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2016–2017. During 2017, we completed laboratory research in Mexico, developed reference collections for future archaeological work,

84 Pohl, von Nagy, Schmidt Schoenberg completed paleobotanical research in the United States, and completed the analysis of radiocarbon assays for Quiotepec-Oxtotilán, Guerrero, and San Andrés (La Venta), Tabasco. We made significant progress in the re-illustration of Oxtotitlán cave imagery and in the dating of this imagery which we reported in a publication. We continued work on a public archaeology web-site, on the development of project digital database, and turned to drafting project publications. Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl primarily authored this report. (English)

von Nagy, Christopher L., Mary D. Pohl, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (in preparation, 2018) Ritualidad y Política en Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, México. Informe de Investigaciones en Curso. Proyecto Orígenes de la Ciudad Mesoamericana. Proyecto Orígenes Urbanos. (Rituality and Politics at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico. Report on On- going Analyses. Origins of the Mesoamerican City Project. Urban Origins Project.) Technical Report. Archive of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, México. (Spanish)

We summarize our accomplishments during the fifth grant year period in this Urban Origins project interim report for 2016–2017. During 2017, we completed laboratory research in Mexico, developed reference collections for future archaeological work, completed paleobotanical research in the United States, and completed the analysis of radiocarbon assays for Quiotepec-Oxtotilán, Guerrero, and San Andrés (La Venta), Tabasco. We made significant progress in the re-illustration of Oxtotitlán cave imagery and in the dating of this imagery which we reported in a publication. We continued work on a public archaeology web-site, on the development of project digital database, and turned to drafting project publications. Christopher L. von Nagy and Mary D. Pohl primarily authored this report. (English)

Web resources

von Nagy, Christopher L., Mary D. Pohl, Helena C. von Nagy. (2017) The Urban Origins Project at Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico. Research at an Olmec period Polity Center. (El Projecto Orígenes Urbanos en Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán, Guerrero, Mexico. Investigaciones en una Unidad Política del Período Olmeca) Bilingual web resource. http://urbanorigins.anthropology.fsu.edu.

85 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

To meet a key project goal, we developed a bilingual Spanish and English language public archaeology web site presenting the story and on-going conclusions of our work and showcasing the re-illustration and high resolution re-documentation of the Quiotepec-Oxtotitlán cave paintings. Revisions and additions to the web site continue as we further develop conclusions and scholarship on this key Olmec-period Guerrero site. This web site provides a platform to serve pedagogical ends as well as to inform the casually interested visitor.

Berkley, Cameron, Dennis E. Slice, Michael D. Carrasco, and Joshua D. Englehardt. (2016) The Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing. Electronic document and website. http://www.MesoAmericanCorpus.cfa.fsu.edu.

Work by project members Drs. Michael Carrasco, Joshua Englehardt, and Kristi Peterson in 2012 and 2013 on our Digital La Venta web project contributed to the early development of approaches, data, and materials employed in the development of the Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing web site. Drs. Carrasco and Englehardt subsequently continued development of materials for a prototype Mesoamerican Corpus web site together with Cameron Berkley and Dennis Slice under separate NEH funding. The Mesoamerican Corpus makes available high-resolution 3D versions of Formative art together with search tools to facilitate geographic, chronological, and iconographic / graphic searches.

von Nagy, Christopher, Mary D. Pohl, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg. (2012–) The Urban Origins Project Collection. The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). https://core.tdar.org/collection/17706/urban-origins-project

tDAR serves as a long term repository of record for many archaeological projects. We archive some project-related materials on the tDAR archive and intent to continue to do so. tDAR parallels the archive of record for our project in Mexico at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), although to our understanding INAH does not have the intention of making archived material available via the Internet at this point in time.

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von Nagy, Christopher L., Mary D. Pohl, Paul Schimdt Schoenberg. (2018–) Urban Origins Project materials. DigiNole Digital Repository. Florida State University. https://fsu.digital.flvc.org

Florida State University maintains DigiNole as a location for the archiving of scholarly works by FSU faculty and researchers. We store copies of reports, data and other materials on DigiNole to ensure accessibility of Urban Origins project work and to comply with current data management and retention expectations.

von Nagy, Christopher, Mary D. Pohl, and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg. (2018-) Urban Origins Project materials. ScholarWorks Digital Repository. University of Nevada, Reno.

The University of Nevada, Reno maintains ScholarWorks as a location for the archiving of scholarly works by UNR faculty, researchers, and students. We store copies of data and other materials on ScholarWorks to ensure accessibility of Urban Origins project work and to comply with current data management and retention expectations.

Supplementary materials

No supplementary materials have been requested.

87 Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity (RZ-51497-12)

Images

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