Soconusco Formative Project

Soconusco Formative Project 2002

During the months of April and May 2002, FAMSI-sponsored excavations were initiated by the Soconusco Formative Project at Cuauhtémoc. In the course of an eight-week season we excavated a total of 29 units that constituted 57.5 m² and profiled four 50 m long sections of irrigation canals that cut through the site (Figure 2). This work has confirmed the site’s continuous occupation during the Barra through Conchas phases and has documented stratified and chronologically superimposed deposits. With these data, local developmental trajectories are emerging. Questions of evolving village life are being explored beginning in pre-Olmec times and pan-regional changes, brought about by the rise and fall of both San Lorenzo and La Venta, are being tracked in the Soconusco.

Suboperation 1 was excavated as 5 units next to the 220 m profile (Figure 3, shown above) that showed this area to be a Jocotal and Conchas midden that is 30 m long off of the side of a raised occupation zone that has recently been shaved down to pre-Olmec period levels. These units formed a 2 × 6 m block that allowed us to excavate two 1 × 2 m columns from two sides with tight stratigraphic control (Figure 4, shown above). Conchas and Jocotal dark, dense midden deposits (with traces of Cuadros materials) were documented overlying Locona through Cherla occupations contained within a sand horizon. The existence of this sand level was documented across much of the site and was likely the reason this location was initially favored for settlement as it raised the community above the seasonal floods in this alluvial environment. A burial was recovered from these sand levels. From Locona period levels, two effigy vessels were recovered; a bowl in the shape of a fish (Figure 5, shown below) and a tecomate with a composite human-duck image (Figure 6, shown below). Human-duck imagery is best known from the Tuxtla statuette (Bernal 1969: Plate 47) but is also found at Altar 7 at La Venta (Ochoa and Jaime 2000: 27). However, this tecomate is the oldest duck/human representation by 500 years and the only one from a pre-Olmec context that I am aware of.

Suboperation 2 was excavated as 17 units aligned linearly over 100 m (Figure 7, shown above) in order to bisect what is left of the base of Mound 2, a 2 m high structure that was reported to measure approximately 100 × 25 m before being flattened when the land was prepared for bananas to be planted. This series of units is roughly perpendicular to the 220 m profile mentioned above and helps to document the dimensions of the original raised sand horizon. These units collectively document horizontal stratigraphy with Barra through Cherla sand levels in the central units flanked to the north and south by Cuadros, Jocotal and Conchas midden associated with the edge of the mound that once stood here. The early Early Formative (i.e., Barra, Locona and Ocos) component from under the mound is now exposed with these earliest phases on the surface of the current ground level. In these levels we documented a hearth feature. Suboperation 2 documents areas of pure Locona midden that are 70 cm thick in places. From the northern most unit we recovered part of a Middle Formative quadripartite vessel (Figure 8, shown below) in the levels above an Ocos phase bell-shaped pit. This vessel form is more typical of Highland México during the Middle Formative. From the southern part of the Suboperation we recovered a Middle Formative seated figurine made of greenstone (Figure 9, shown below) and a nearly complete solid ceramic figurine measuring 19 cm in height (Figure 10) and a polished, triangular mirror (Figure 11, shown below). Three burials were recovered on the edge of the midden and two others were encountered but we did not have time to excavate them.

Suboperation 3 was excavated at Mound 1, the only remaining architecture at the site. We profiled a 50 m section of the irrigation canal that runs north south (bisecting the mound) and excavated a 2 m and a 4 m unit perpendicular to the canal. These units document that the mound was built during the Conchas phase and, in addition to other artifacts, we recovered a small jade adze from the construction fill (Figure 12, shown below). This mound was built over a series of occupations levels from earlier phases and we documented a Cherla phase pit full of shell, fauna and burnt clay below the center of the mound that was dug into an Ocos brown sand level (Figure 13, shown below).

Suboperation 5 was excavated to document the construction history of Mound 3. This mound was purportedly 5 m high before being ploughed to plant bananas. We cleaned a 50 m section of irrigation canal of all vegetation (Figure 14, shown below), shovel scraped and then profile one wall. Next, we excavated a 1 × 2 m unit west of the canal to collect a controlled sample of artifacts directly associated with this stratigraphic information. We have documented that this mound was built exclusively during the Conchas phase when Cuauhtémoc reached its largest extents. This mound was constructed beyond the eastern edge of the original sand horizon and thus represented a labor investment not only for the mound but for extending the raised village surface as well. The fill material is almost exclusively from the Conchas phase down over 2.5 m (i.e., 40 cm below the current water table) with no earlier occupation levels documented.

Suboperation 4 and 6 were excavated in the northwest sector of Cuauhtémoc to take advantage of the subsurface view that the irrigation canals provide and to begin documenting the site’s history and extents. As with Suboperation 5, we cleaned and profiled a 50 m section of irrigation canal and excavated a 1 × 2 m unit at each of these two suboperations. The south end of the canal profiled as Suboperation 4 began close to the northernmost unit of Suboperation 2 and together they provide a view of 150 m of subsurface stratigraphy perpendicular to the 220 m profile drawn in 2001 (see Figure 2). This Suboperation documents the northern edge of the early Early Formative sand level 13 m from its southern edge and the excavated materials from a 1 × 2 m unit east of the canal profile are pure Jocotal and Conchas phase deposits. Suboperation 6 is parallel to, approximately 60 m west of, Suboperation 4 and is beyond the limit of the early Early Formative sand. The excavated materials are Cuadros, Jocotal and Conchas in age with some earlier materials mixed in. These suboperations represent the first steps in documenting the site’s geologic and cultural development.

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