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

Preliminary results

Ceramic and lithic assemblages from both excavated houses suggest a commoner class occupation given that utilitarian wares dominated, there was a much lower density of luxury wares, and burials were rather simple, with few or no offerings. Lithic artifacts, other than obsidian, were of local materials and manufacture. We found few obsidian artifacts, suggesting that Nicayuhu’s terrace farmers obtained obsidian in blade form only. Obsidian blades were used until exhausted or were sometimes reshaped to extend their usefulness. The entire artifact assemblage shows a great variety of economic useful tools and ceramic wares consistent with domestic activity and there is no evidence of specialized lithic (other than expedient tools), ceramic or cloth production (no spindle whorls were found).

Excavations at house 1 (Figure 5 and Figure 6, shown below) showed clear evidence of residential stability. The house consisted of four large structures that flanked a square patio. Each structure was divided into two to three rooms. Each room showed evidence of different stages of construction. Each room had from two-to-four successive stucco floors. The structures showed marked differences in masonry and construction techniques, even in the same building. All structures had stone foundations and two-faced endeque (caliche or calcrete) block walls filled with stone and dirt. All but one room had at least one stone box-hearth. In the eastern structure, the southernmost room had a well preserved slanted stucco floor and a drain cut into the stone wall to the west. We found an oven-like feature to the east of the southern room; we called this the east annex. The annex consisted of a layer of burnt volcanic rock and a lower layer of ash and burnt clay. The south room and the east annex may have been a temazcal, idea that was supported when we found a similar feature in house 2.

Excavations at house 2 (Figure 7 and Figure 8, shown below) also revealed evidence of residential stability. House 2 occupied the full extent of a small terrace, and consisted of four rooms surrounding a square patio. Later, an additional room and possible temazcal were built in the patio area, reducing its size. Another interesting feature of house 2 is the small cave attached to the west of the south room. This cave was excavated and emptied. We found few broken or discarded pottery and lithic materials that suggest that the cave contents were taken when the house was abandoned. Although house 2 showed various construction stages, there were no super-imposed stucco floors. It appears that house 1 was the result of a longer occupation.

We also trenched a lama-bordo terrace (Figure 9, shown below) to obtain a long stratigraphic profile that would reveal whether or not lama-bordos were built through a gradual unplanned process of household-level labor investment, innovation and maintenance (e.g. Dunning and Beach 1994). Prolonged household labor and capital investment would suggest usufruct or heritable rights of particular households over lama-bordo terraces (e.g. Netting 1993). And, these households would have belonged to the social classes identified in the residential terrace excavations—commoner class, nanday tay ñuu. If the excavation revealed that the terrace was constructed in larger single episodes requiring a greater amount of planned and concentrated labor, it would suggest institutional labor organization beyond the household level.

The 1-m wide trench ran perpendicular from the terrace wall and extended for 16 meters. The test trench excavations (Figure 9, shown above) revealed that lama-bordos were built through a gradual unplanned process of household-level labor investment that relied on the natural run-off that occurs during the rainy season. In addition, indigenous knowledge from modern San Juan Teposcolula farmers provides a model for lama-bordo construction. According to local farmers, lama-bordo terraces or retenes, are built by groups of 8 to 26 people—6 to 20 men and 2 to 6 women. The men cut brush and carry stones and the women provide the food to get the job done. These people are usually part of the same extended family or are part of a guesa (an informal agreement between households to work with and for each other at times of need). The work group goes to a drainage, where the retén will be built during the rainy season and make a barrier 1-m high and wide of stone and cut brush. The farmers wait for the rain and the natural run-off to fill the retén with fresh soil. Over time, the retén is built up and lama-bordo terraces are built by groups of cooperating households that seek to create their own rich agricultural lands.

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