Epi-Classic Cultural Dynamics in the Mezquital Valley

Introduction

The Epi-Classic period (ca. A.D. 600/700–900/1000) has been almost everywhere in Mesoamerica, except the Valley of México, a period of regional splendor characterized by intense interregional interactions.

At that time, a communications network that connected societies from extreme regions within the Mesoamerican territory was active from the northern portion of the Central Plateau to the Maya Area. This "Pan-Mesoamerican" network is insinuated in the generalized dispersion of a number of luxury goods.

Among these objects, the existence of certain greenstone figures should be outlined, with characteristics, peculiarities, a wide geographical distribution and a relatively limited temporal extension that turn them into an excellent marker for the horizon. We have dedicated the first part of this work to that phenomenon.

Besides, the dispersion of these figures is coincident with the circulation of other products, such as turquoise, the gray obsidian from Ucareo/Zinapécuaro, and shell from both coastal strips. The obtention of materials from such varied origins can only be understood as the result of an active and dynamical participation of these societies in a macroregional system.

When reducing the scale of our analysis, such system may be observed as a spatially integrating and continuous process, where the links with remote regions derive from the concurrence of connections with nearby regions. In the second part of this essay, a few distributive networks are outlined, which may have to do with the transit of the products mentioned above, both from an interregional perspective with emphasis made on the northern portion of the Central Plateau, and a regional perspective, where aspects of the Mezquital Valley have been underlined.

As stated in the proposal submitted to FAMSI, our goal is to contribute in reducing the number of "voids" which make it difficult to attain a perception of Mesoamerica as a social, rather than a geographical space, and its pre-hispanic history as a consequence of a flexible, permeable structure in constant interaction. What we have just said forces us to reevaluate the role played by the human groups that occupied the region as integrated societies in a framework of inclosing relationships, within a much larger social matrix. In this sense, the definition of some groups as marginal or alien to the development of Mesoamerica is no longer easy to sustain.

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