The Redención del Campesino Valley Archaeological Survey

Introduction

During the past field season of the FAMSI funded project "The Pomoná Kingdom and its Hinterland", conducted in eastern Tabasco, Mexico in 2001, we were informed of the existence of an inscribed wooden box in a locality near Tenosique known as Álvaro Obregón. The community of Álvaro Obregón lies close to the eastern end of a valley that is approximately 16 km long by 2.5 km wide, named after the bigger town of Redención del Campesino (Figure 1). This valley is separated from the Tabasco Coastal plain by a low (300-600 masl) ridge of limestone hills, which limit easy access from the coastal plain. However near the northwestern end of the valley, some 13 km from Álvaro Obregón, a fault in the ridge has led to a cleft that constitutes a natural pass (Plate 1, shown below).

The wooden box proved to be an extraordinary find indeed. In fact, there were two wooden boxes; the other one, of roughly the same dimensions, is plain. These boxes were originally found inside a cave located in the vicinity of the community of Álvaro Obregón. Although the inscribed box is somewhat weathered and incomplete, a good portion of it is well enough preserved as to allow the decipherment of its hieroglyphic inscription (the missing section was reported in 2002 confirming the initial decipherment [http://mesoweb.com/reports/box/piece.html]). Two important implications were derived from this inscription and will be discussed in detail below; first, the text of the box clearly refers to a series of hierarchical relationships involving the kingdom of Piedras Negras. Second, the fact that this box was found in a cave within the valley, and the reference it makes to high dignitaries, may indicate the existence of an important center subordinate to Piedras Negras.

When we visited Álvaro Obregón to inspect the box several pieces of ceramics were also examined (Plate 2, shown above, and Plate 3, shown below). These shards are quite different from the ceramics that we were recovering from the Pomoná/Panhalé region but seem to have a strong resemblance with those described by Forsyth and Hruby for Piedras Negras dating from the Late Classic Period (Forsyth and Hruby 1997:210-211). If this is the case, this identification may constitute another line of evidence that supports the hypothesis that the Redención del Campesino Valley was within the Piedras Negras kingdom.

In Álvaro Obregón, at the top of a small hill the remains of an architectural group can still be seen. These structures have been badly damaged by looter’s trenches and by the construction of the community’s water tank, as they were used as a source of readily available building materials (Plate 4, shown below). When inspecting the site we were told that a bigger site with standing painted walls was located in the vicinity. These reports and our initial reconnaissance of the area supported the assumption that a center of significant political standing existed within the Valley of Redención del Campesino, and prompted our research to be directed towards the archaeological survey of the valley.

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