Las Bocas, Puebla, Archaeological Project

Considerations

The results obtained in the explorations conducted in 1997 with photo interpretation, surface surveys and delimitation of the zone have revealed a densely populated area in pre-Hispanic times, since through aerial photos we can observe abundant white patches caused by phosphates and other chemical traces which have been deposited and concentrated in residential zones as a part of domestic and various other activities. Thus, although only a large platform was found in the growing fields at the entrance of the town of San José Las Bocas, as sole evidence of structures on the land surface, we believe that many others must have been destroyed throughout time. Materials recovered at the terrace correspond to a later time, thus confirming that Classic and Post-Classic settlements were covered by the town’s modern constructions.

Photo interpretation was accomplished using INEGI’s photographic mosaic of vertical, black and white photos (stereoscopic pairs): Special flight Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Scale 1: 20,000, date December 1993 and March 1994, flight lines 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, and the facilities of the Office of Archaeological Records, INAH, with the support of archaeologist Hernando Gómez Rueda, from DICPA.

Photo interpretation allowed the study of an extended area of the Epatlán valley up to the lagoon, and the E section of the Izúcar valley. Thus, we were able to identify the present human impacts on the environment in the shape of agricultural fields, villages, communication networks, and irrigation systems, among others. Pre-Hispanic settlements were mainly located by marks on the ground, resulting from deeply buried archaeological vestiges (Barba, 1990: 11-13).

Soils at the archaeological site are of an alluvial sedimentary nature, and as reported by Sánchez Pérez and Pastor (1999), their granulometric features and geographical location suggest they correspond to a larger bed than what physiographically is known as an alluvial plain.

These types of soils favor temporal agriculture, and are easily sown with manual agricultural implements like those that were probably used in the Formative Period, which we assume were made of wood and therefore have not survived to our days. During the 1998 and 2000 explorations we recovered no lithic artifact that could be inferred as having been used for farming. Through very early XVIth century historic documents, it is known that in the region of the Mexican altiplano, just after the Spanish conquest, agricultural works were still being accomplished with three types of manual tools made of wood and of pre-Hispanic manufacture, one of them the well known coa (Rojas, 1998).

By bringing together the previous proposals, we are attempting to provide an a priori explanation of the great incidence of marks on the land detected through photo interpretation, which has allowed us to conjecture that the area was densely populated in pre-Hispanic times, without establishing so far the period to which the settlements correspond. However, an intensive and systematic study of the area with sufficient resources and personnel will be required to verify such interpretations. One of our goals includes a continued survey through future field seasons, so that with a study of the settlement pattern we may gain a deeper understanding of the development process of the pre-Hispanic communities, both locally and regionally.

As already stated in 1998, we were able to conduct only test excavations as a consequence of the small budget assigned; however, the results have allowed us to catch a glimpse of some archaeological contexts from the site, like evidences of possible households, workshops, hearths and other activity areas, in addition to the finding of an earthen foundation similar to those from the Gulf Coast explored by Coe and Diehl at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (1980: 106 and 107). This foundation was detected at Pit II, but up to now, the P.A. Emma Marmolejo, from the Office of Archaeological Records, INAH, who was in charge of this excavation unit in 1998, has not submitted the information requested (Appendix 2).

In the 1960s, when Michael Coe published his book The Jaguar’s Children, he referred to Las Bocas as one of the last cemeteries of the Mexican altiplano, similar to Tlatilco; however, our excavations have only shown one child burial at Pit II and disarticulated bones such as finger phalanxes, one mandible, and other loose fragments in pits II and III, which will be sent to the Office of Physical Anthropology, INAH, for analysis, once the information is completed with the report of Pit II.

Perhaps at the time of the great illegal excavations in the 1960s, other burials were found, because only such a thing would account for the large amount of complete ceramic objects and figurines that have practically flooded private collections and foreign museums, as we assume they must have been a part of the offerings associated to the burials.

Nevertheless, they are no more than unfounded speculations, and surely as suggested by Grove (1996: 108-109), the high prices that pieces attributed to Las Bocas reach in the illegal market of archaeological objects may entice those who auction and sell pieces to "label" them as originating from this site. We agree with this line of thinking, although Grove (ibid) also refers to the remarkable degree of looting evident at Las Bocas-Caballo Pintado. One explanation leads to the other, and vice-versa.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Tlatilco and Las Bocas were widely thought to be cemeteries (Coe, 1965: 10), a non-existent type of archaeological site in Mesoamerica. However, thirty years later such notions still exist, as seen in recent works on the Olmecs from the central altiplano, in which Las Bocas is still postulated as a burial place (Serra Puche, 1995: 184).

In his pioneer works, Piña Chan (1958; 1960: 53-66) refers to the Pre-Classic villages and their evolution along three stages: Early, Middle and Late, until the beginning of urbanism takes place. Later, with Flannery’s (1970; 1976) works in Oaxaca, it was possible to recover evidence of the development of agricultural villages from the Formative or Pre-Classic periods, stage by stage, through the study of households, their activity areas and spatial distribution.

In Mesoamerican archaeology, there are big issues still to be resolved concerning social, economic and political institutions in the earlier villages of the Mexican central altiplano, and moreover, enigmas of the Olmec societies in this region, as for example, what was the degree of political centralization, the degree and complexity of social stratification and economic specialization in these early Mesoamerican societies?

We consider that the results achieved with the explorations of the Las Bocas Project are highly satisfactory, as they have allowed us to evaluate archaeological contexts from this site, by recovering information from several activity areas of a Formative village. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of research to be carried out.

Finally, we feel that no appreciations should be advanced, and no judgments should be expressed without a scientific foundation, as in the case with Las Bocas, a place that throughout time gradually turned into a myth in Mesoamerican archaeology, and the dilemma of the Olmec presence in the Mexican central altiplano.

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