Suchil River Valley Archaeological Project, Zacatecas and Durango, 2005 Season

Preliminary Considerations

The information obtained so far allows us to identify the possible presence of a site hierarchy: family-level groups, including hunter-gatherer camps and hamlets; local groups, including villages and towns; and regional political entities or chiefdoms (Johnson and Earle 2003).

This site hierarchy could be explained as the existence of several social groups that were integrated by at least two heterarchical chiefdoms, ¹   resulting from historical processes and being a consequence of the level of intensification of production, which in its turn could have originated with population growth and technological development. The problems created by population growth were solved through the formation of political institutions, which created a wider political-economic integration and more powerful rulers who lived in sites such as Alta Vista and Cerro Moctezuma.

These initial considerations are put forth so as to guide future research, rather than as conclusions. We will carry on with a series of surveys and with the extensive excavation of at least one site of each type, to better understand the diachronic aspect of regional development.

Click on image to enlarge.

Endnote

1. Elites are not organized in one sole central hierarchy. There are various hierarchies associated with different sources of power. They are ritually elaborate, but are not solidified institutionally into one sole political entity. Within heterarchies there is room for a whole range of chiefdoms reflecting multilineal evolutions of complexity, based on the political economies of prestige goods and the means for the legitimation of positions (Johnson and Earle 2003).

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