Las Bocas, Puebla, Archaeological Project

Research Proposal for the Third Field Season, 2000

Still, in spite of the destruction of several archaeological contexts by looters, we thought that there were areas susceptible to exploration at the site of Caballo Pintado, and consequently, we felt it was urgent to proceed with the archaeological exploration works interrupted in 1999 due the lack of financial resources we had requested from INAH.

A consequence of having interrupted the archaeological explorations in 1999 was that upon initiating our field work this year, thanks to FAMSI Inc.’s financial support, we observed the destruction of additional archaeological contexts due to new illegal excavations carried out at the site. Like we have explained elsewhere, the site has been systematically looted from the 1960s to the present, with the purpose of selling these archaeological objects which are in high demand in the illicit commerce of archaeological artifacts because they can bring large amounts of money in auction houses abroad (Gamboa, 1999; Sotheby’s: Pre-Columbian Art, 1998: 125, 126, 196, figs: 285 and 295; Sotheby’s: Pre-Columbian Art, 1999: 22, figs: 61 and 62).

Nevertheless, as we have concluded after the first inspection for the Las Bocas Project in 1996, and with the results obtained in subsequent explorations made in 1997 and 1998, we disagree with Grove’s point of view (1996: 108) when he says, "it is too late to conduct research in this ancient village [Las Bocas] because the archaeological deposits have been completely destroyed by the intensive, illegal excavations"…

Precisely, because the site was heavily looted and according to what we were able to detect through our archaeological works, a number of important buried contexts and structures are still in place. These circumstances urge us, from the scientific and ethical perspective, and in our role of professional archaeologists, to carry out intensive and extensive explorations at Las Bocas-Caballo Pintado, aimed at recovering every possible bit of information on a village from the Formative Period at the Mexican central altiplano, perhaps the last opportunity at hand to achieve this goal.

With the results of the second season which revealed evidence of well preserved remains, we proposed to carry out extensive excavations in the areas nearby pits II, III and IV, aimed at recovering evidence of activities related to a possible household, data regarding work areas, particularly lithic and pottery workshops, and to liberate an earthen platform.

As Manzanilla (1993: 15) has mentioned, the study of activity zones has become an area of particular interest within archaeology. This study area has been denominated "domestic archaeology" or "context archaeology", and is mainly concerned with understanding the distribution of repeated human behavioral patterns. A household is the spatial unit representing the minimal archaeological record where raw materials, artifacts and associated debris have concentrated.

Simultaneously, we proposed to continue with the test units program in other zones of the site in an attempt to locate other occupational areas, particularly the area of the Teponaztle. However, the Council of Archaeology suggested that during the 2000 season, only the areas close to pits II, III and IV were to be excavated.

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