Household Intensification in the Mixtec Cacicazgo: Excavation of a House and Terraced Fields

Research Design and Methods

Regional settlement and historical data suggest that Nicayuhu pertained to the cacicazgo of Teposcolula, one of the largest polities in Postclassic Oaxaca (e.g. Spores 1967, 1983, 1984, 1997; Stiver 2001). Nicayuhu has dozens of well-preserved residential terraces and five large, continuous lama-bordo terrace systems that flank the surrounding hills (Figure 3). I chose Nicayuhu because of its rural setting away from Teposcolula’s capital; its limited civic-ceremonial architecture; and its environmental setting, well suited for intensive agricultural terracing (Figure 4, shown below). Nicayuhu is ideal to study lower-status, agriculturally productive sectors of the Postclassic Mixtec population. One could confidently say that the entire hill of Nicayuhu and all its residential areas are closely associated with rich agricultural lama-bordo terrace land.

My FAMSI-sponsored research was multi-stage, and involved students from Mexican universities as well as persons from San Juan Teposcolula. First, we mapped with total station and made intensive surface collections at Nicayuhu (Figure 4, shown above). Second, we excavated to completion two houses that dated to the Postclassic period. Third, we test-excavated a lama-bordo terrace and twenty contour terraces at Nicayuhu. These methods were designed to gather independent data sets on the household and site levels, asking questions about terrace farmers, agricultural intensification, and the Mixtec system of social stratification. What was the social status of, and what were the social differences among, Nicayuhu’s terrace farmers? How long were terraces occupied, and how were they modified over time? How were households organized at this site? How were lama-bordo terraces constructed?

I assumed that terrace farmers lived near their agricultural terraces, and then identified and conducted extensive archaeological excavations at two Postclassic houses found on separate residential terraces at Nicayuhu. I established the residents’ social status by rating the quality, richness, and variety of artifact inventories using established typologies (e.g. Caso et al. 1967; Spores 1972). I rated architecture according to the quality of construction and materials used (e.g. Caso 1977, 1992; Abrams 1994; Smith et al. 1999). The preliminary results from the artifact assemblages suggest a commoner occupation. The next step was to catalogue the excavated houses as either tay situndayu or nanday tay ñuu based on the continuity of occupation. I determined continuity of occupation by testing for archaeological deposits consistent with architectural maintenance and material continuity in the household across the sequence of occupation. A continuous occupation would suggest heritable property or usufruct rights, and it would be interpreted as a nanday tay ñuu occupation because ethnohistorical sources report that some nanday tay ñuu owned top-rated agricultural land (Spores 1984:131). Short-lived and interrupted occupations would be evidence of tay situndayu occupations at the excavated houses; according to Spores (1967) and others (e.g. Burgoa [1671]), tay situndayu only temporarily worked assigned plots of the cacique’s lands.

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