chapter three

Lambityeco: The Economic Basis

Lambityeco’s economic role as an important Xoo phase district center in the Tlacolula arm of the Valley of Oaxaca may best be understood by first assessing its ecological setting. The lands surrounding Lambityeco are, for the most part, poor for agriculture, especially when considered in conjunction with the exceedingly low rainfall in the area. Kowalewski (1982:155–157) has noted that, in the absence of some type of irrigation, an area must receive at least 700 mm of rainfall per year to ensure an adequate harvest of corn. He cites records showing that the area surrounding Lambityeco receives less than 700 mm of rainfall per year seven out of every ten years, with an actual average of 600 mm of rainfall per year (Kirkby 1973:19, fig. 8). Because there is no evidence in the environs of Lambityeco of an infrastructure for water management and assuming that similar climatic conditions to the present one prevailed in the past, this means that corn planted in the area failed to yield adequate harvests most of the planting seasons.

The site is located partially on alluvial fan gravels and partially on alluvial clay soils. Today many of the fields in and around Lambityeco are planted with maguey, which, of course, grows in thin soil and requires little water to survive. The maguey is processed by Tlacolula distilleries to produce mezcal. In a study of land use in the area of Lambityeco, Kirkby (1973:165–168) estimated that nearly 20 percent of the alluvial clays around the site were unsuitable for farming because they are heavily saline (Kirkby 1973:166, fig. 62).

3.1. Ancient and modern salt production at Lambityeco (photos a, b, and e courtesy of David Peterson)

Most of the saline soils are located along the swampy southern edge of the site. The extensive salt deposits can be seen in an air photo (Fig. 3.1a) and from the ground (Fig. 3.1b). Peterson (1979:1) noted that the swamp is “not the result of surface drainage into that area. Instead, it comes from an underground or flowage system which is heavy in salt. In the area . . . the flowage meets the surface and forms a salty swamp.” Although saline soils are useless for agriculture, they are obviously important as a source of salt, and access to these salt deposits was the principal determinant of Lambityeco’s location within its district.

SALT PRODUCTION AT LAMBITYECO

“Salt is a perfect commodity: production and distribution are easy to control since sources are localized, yet demand is broad” (Kepecs 2003b:126). Kepecs (2003b:127) identifies two basic kinds of salt produced in ancient Mesoamerica—pure salt from coastal estuaries and tequisquites (impure salt) from salt playas. Emal on the north coast of Yucatán obtained pure salt produced by solar evaporation along the Río Lagartos estuary and was the largest salt-producing center in Prehispanic Mesoamerica (Kepecs 2003a:264–265; 2003b:128).

Tequisquites from the Lambityeco salt playas was being produced in the early Colonial period (Canseco 1580:147) and sold in the Tlacolula market. During this time salt was purchased by communities as far away as Tlalixtac in the Valle Central (Del Río 1580:181) (see Fig. 2.3 for location). As recently as 1945, about fifteen families from Tlacolula still extracted salt from Lambityeco to sell in the Tlacolula market and thirty-seven modern mounds of filtered earth still stand as a testimony to their activities (Fig. 3.1c).

Peterson (1976) carried out a detailed study of salt production at Lambityeco and other sites in the Valley of Oaxaca. There were eight salt-producing sites operational in the valley during the Xoo phase (Peterson 1976:115). At this time, Lambityeco reached its maximum size and salt workers were producing an average of 21,850 kilos of salt each month (Peterson 1976:110). The Lambityeco salt workers produced enough salt to meet the needs of 90 percent of the valley population. The other seven valley salt-producing sites contributed the remaining 10 percent of the valley’s salt needs (Peterson 1976:113–115). Lambityeco clearly became the valley’s major salt-production center during the seventh to ninth centuries CE.

From his excavations in salt-production areas, Peterson (1976:101–103) has defined the various methods used to obtain salt. In the early Xoo phase, brine was either obtained directly from the salt marsh or was mixed with salty soil to enrich it. Mixing increases salinity and enhances yield from about ten grams of salt per liter of unmixed brine to about fifty grams per liter of enriched brine (Peterson 1974b:10). The salt was produced by boiling the brine in large ceramic ollas, called salt boilers, over an open fire (Fig. 3.1d). Late in the Xoo phase, a new technique was introduced. This involved mixing salty earth with brine in ceramic tubs to enhance its salinity (Fig. 3.1e) and then boiling the brine in salt boilers that were placed in ovens (Peterson 1974a:13; 1974b:7).

Peterson (personal communication, 1979) determined that fifteen families from Tlacolula extracted about 2,880 kilos of salt each month from Lambityeco in 1945. If fifteen families produced that amount of salt per month, then it must have taken about 110 to 120 families to produce the 21,850 kilos of salt extracted from Lambityeco each month during the Xoo phase. Taking Kowalewski’s estimate of 2,700 persons, or about 500 families, as Lambityeco’s population during that time, this means that nearly one-fourth of the population was directly engaged in salt production.

THE ORGANIZATION OF XOO PHASE SALT PRODUCTION

Following a sequential segregation approach, archaeologists have generally characterized the organization of production relative to phases. Thus, Feinman (1982) has suggested that ceramic production was organized in government workshops in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Xoo phase but was an individual enterprise during the Chila phase. In the same way, following a sequential segregation approach, the question could be asked, Was salt production an individual enterprise at Lambityeco during the Xoo phase, or was it organized in government workshops? To phrase research problems in these terms of sequential segregation, however, is to ignore any possible change in the organization of salt production during the Xoo phase. It assumes that throughout the 200 years of that phase, salt production was either organized in one way or another. Here a sequential integration approach is taken and the research question becomes, Was there any change in the organization of salt production during the Xoo phase at Lambityeco?

Peterson (1979) located twenty-three Xoo phase mounds at Lambityeco that showed clear evidence for salt-production activities. He sampled twelve of these mounds with a posthole digger to search for the presence or absence of house floors. Two mounds were excavated—one partially (Mound 100 Complex that includes Mounds 96, 97, 98, 99, and 100) and one extensively (Mound 91)—whereas subsurface remains were revealed by roadcuts, plowing, or holes dug by looters in a number of others. At least nine of the twenty-three mounds showed that salt production was directly associated with the houses of commoners.

An examination of the distribution of the mounds representing the houses of salt producers and those showing evidence of salt-production activities demonstrates that the mounds are scattered about the site (Fig. 3.2). This indicates that salt production was not confined to a workshop. It also indicates that salt producers were not concentrated in a specific barrio. Instead, the scattered distribution makes it appear that salt production was an individual-household enterprise at Lambityeco. The fact that salt producers’ houses are those of commoners, are widely scattered throughout the community (ranging from as near as 150 m to as far as 500 m away from the salt deposits), are not grouped in a barrio, and do not occur in clusters around government buildings or elite houses lends support to the idea that they were communal property. However, local authorities may have charged a fee for access to the salt deposits or taxed them on their sales in the marketplace.

3.2. Xoo phase salt production at Lambityeco

The location of salt producers’ houses suggests that salt production was a profitable enterprise for commoners. It would take about twenty liters of enriched brine to produce a kilo of salt. Inquiries among Tlacolula residents revealed that a hearty individual can carry two twenty-liter ollas of water with a pole across the shoulders and ropes attached to the ends of the pole and wrapped around the ollas to support them. This load, however, was considered a maximum and it was stated that more often two ten- or twelve-liter containers are used.

Because salt boilers are found in thick layers of ash in direct association with salt producers’ houses, it is clear that the process of boiling the brine to obtain salt was carried out within domestic compounds. Therefore, salt producers must have trekked the distance between their homes and the salt deposits to obtain the brine, dig up the saline soil and mix it with the brine to enrich it, and trudge back loaded with ollas of enriched brine to be poured into the salt boilers. Because the salt boilers associated with producers’ houses were often greater than twenty liters (many ranged between twenty-five and ninety liters), the brine must have been transported in smaller containers—twenty liters or less. Considering the energy expended in obtaining, enriching, and transporting brine alone, salt production must have been a relatively profitable enterprise for commoners.

Although data from Peterson’s surveys and excavations of mounds showing evidence of salt production suggest that salt production was a specific household enterprise, additional surveys and excavations in a 7,500 m² area near the salt deposits—where no visible mounds occur—yielded apparently contradictory evidence. Peterson (1974a:6) ran survey transects across this area adjacent to and including the northernmost sector of the salt deposits. Surface collections from these transects revealed the highest density of sherds (190 per square meter) from salt boilers of any area of the site.

Excavations by Peterson and Donovan Clark in the southern part of this area exposed the presence of large ceramic tubs, 80 cm in diameter and 60 cm deep (Fig. 3.1d), used to mix salty earth with brine to enhance the salinity (Peterson 1974b:7). In addition, the remains of several ovens, at least one of which (Horno #2) had only Xoo phase sherds associated with it, were found (Peterson 1974a:table IX). The salt production area, then, with mixing tubs, ovens, and salt boilers may have been a sector of workshops established during the Xoo phase (Fig. 3.2).

Peterson (1974a:13) undertook studies to determine changes through time in Xoo phase salt production at Lambityeco. His study of salt boilers revealed two types of changes. First, he noted that salt boilers from stratigraphically earlier contexts in the Xoo phase were larger in size than those from later stratigraphic contexts. Second, he observed that there was an increase over time in the amount of mica inclusions in the clay body or “paste” of salt boilers. Salt boilers from the earliest stratigraphic contexts contained virtually no or very little mica, whereas those from later stratigraphic contexts contained greater amounts of mica. John Carroll (1974), who completed an analysis of the ceramics from Lambityeco that was unrelated to Peterson’s work and based on William Fowler’s (1974) stratigraphic test pit project at Lambityeco, independently observed evidence for a decrease in size and increase in the mica content of salt boilers through time.

The decrease in size of salt boilers may have correlated with the introduction of ovens late in the Xoo phase. Instead of boiling brine in large salt boilers over open fires, a number of smaller salt boilers may have been placed together in an oven. Their smaller size combined with greater heat retention in the oven probably led to more rapid evaporation and greater efficiency in salt production. Peterson (1976:95) reports that in the 1940s, five or six salt boilers were placed in each oven and were even smaller than the archaeological salt boilers from the Xoo phase.

The reason for the increase in mica content is unknown although it serves as a convenient temporal marker. Peterson (1979:table IX) compared sherds from salt boilers associated with the houses of salt producers (Mound 91) with sherds from salt boilers associated with the Xoo phase oven (Horno #2) in the probable workshop area and found that the salt boiler sherds from the latter context contained higher mica contents. This evidence indicates, therefore, that salt production was being carried out at a later date in the workshop sector and at an earlier date in association with individual households.

As a working hypothesis, then, it may be suggested that during the earlier part of the Xoo phase (ca. 650–800 CE) salt production was spatially dispersed and an individual-household enterprise, whereas in the last years of the Xoo phase (ca. 800–850 CE) salt production was spatially nucleated and organized in a workshop area. An initial test of this hypothesis will be made by applying a sequential integration approach to the stratified remains of houses of salt producers uncovered in a mound at Lambityeco located some 275 m north of the salt deposits.

HOUSES OF SALT PRODUCERS IN MOUND 91

Mound 91, less than 1 m high, was partially excavated by David Peterson and Bert Gerow in the summer of 1972. Later, in the fall of 1972 and spring of 1973, the excavation was expanded by a team headed by William Swezey (Peterson 1974b:15–17). Although Swezey (1975) interpreted the remains found in Mound 91 as a ceramic workshop in which salt boilers were made, Peterson (1974b:15–17) clearly demonstrated that the remains correspond to salt production.

3.3. Plan and profile of Tomb 9 in Mound 91 at Lambityeco

The initial excavation consisted of a 1 m wide trench running north to south across the eastern third of the low mound and uncovered two burials and a number of salt boilers in situ in a thick layer of ash (Fig. 3.1f). Swezey expanded the excavations in a series of 4 m by 4 m pits crossing the mound in an east-west direction and uncovered additional salt boilers in situ and the stratified remains of houses, including a tomb (Tomb 9) with seven adults buried in it (Fig. 3.3).

Using a sequential integration approach, Urcid (1983:117–133) analyzed the features exposed in Mound 91 as part of his study of the Lambityeco tombs and burials. Although the mound was only partly excavated and the excavations were not designed to fully determine the stratigraphic patterning essential to a more thorough sequential integration analysis, Urcid was able to detect evidence for four superimposed phases of construction at the locality. The presence of seven adults buried in Tomb 9 suggests that the superimposed houses were successively occupied over a period of four generations, or approximately 100 years.¹

The stratified house remains from top to bottom within Mound 91 all correspond to the Xoo phase with no earlier or later phases present. The last or most recent house (House 91-1) was probably occupied during the last generation leading up to Lambityeco’s abandonment around 825–850 CE. The initial or most ancient household (House 91-4) in the Mound 91 sequence, then, was seemingly built and occupied around 750–775 CE.

Little is know of the oldest household (House 91-4) because of limited exploration. Only a section of an adobe wall was found but not followed out. Perhaps the wall corresponded to a room with a compact earthen floor—although no floor was reported by excavators. However, evidence for salt production in association with this house is clear as shown by a cluster of three salt boilers. It was possible to calculate the volume of one of these salt boilers at twenty-seven liters (Peterson 1976:106, table V). The other two salt boilers were too incomplete for accurate estimates of their capacities. Tomb 9 was probably constructed in association with House 91-4 and the married couple who headed the household was most likely buried in it. The tomb was not a masonry construction but simply a hollow excavated in the tepetate, or natural hardpan soil.

The next structure in the sequence, House 91-3, had at least one room with a plaster floor located in the eastern sector of the house. The room was special because it was built above Tomb 9. Like other “tomb rooms” at Lambityeco, it probably served as a locus of the shrine for the family ancestors buried in the tomb beneath its floor. The married couple who headed House 91-3 was buried in Tomb 9. Other family members, Burial 73-8 (a child nine to twelve years old) and Burial 73-9 (an infant two to six months old), were buried outside the tomb along the west side of the room. Again, salt production associated with this house is evidenced by the presence of five salt boilers. It was possible to calculate the capacities of four of these at 91 liters, 36 liters, 23 liters, and 16 liters (Peterson 1976:106, table V).

The next structure in the sequence, House 91-2, included a plaster patio floor west of the ancestral shrine room and the construction of a second plaster patio floor north of it. This second patio may have had one or more residential rooms around it. Whether the presence of the two patios should be interpreted as indicative of a joint family household is uncertain. However, the close proximity of the patios and the absence of a tomb associated with the north one probably preclude the existence of two separate and unrelated households.

The married couple who headed the household was buried in the household tomb, and other family members—Burial 73-2 (an adolescent female ten to fifteen years old) and Burial 72-1 (an adult male twenty to thirty years old)—were buried, respectively, to the north and south of the ancestral shrine room. The presence of three salt boilers in association with House 91-2 provides evidence that the household was engaged in salt-production activities. It was possible to calculate the capacities of all three (Peterson 1976:106, table V). Two were twenty liters and one was nine liters. These salt boilers are clearly smaller than those associated with the earlier houses.

The final generation occupied House 91-1, which was probably little changed from House 91-2. The north patio of the house was resurfaced with a new plaster floor and evidence for a raised walkway occurs along its east side. The south patio was also resurfaced and Tomb 9 was remodeled, turning it into a simple masonry construction (Fig. 3.3). It included walls without niches built of small unworked stones and sherds stuck together with adobe mortar, an irregularly leveled packed earthen floor, a flat roof of several unworked stones of varying sizes, and an entrance framed by the stones of the walls and roof that were painted red on the exterior with several bands and dots (Urcid 1983:128).

The wife of the fourth-generation married couple who headed the household evidently preceded her spouse in death because the last burial in the tomb was an adult female. The man continued to occupy the house until it was abandoned sometime before his death, probably around 850 CE. Other family members were buried under different areas of the house. Burial 73-7 (a child one to three years old) was interred beneath the raised walkway in front of the east room of the north patio. Burial 72-9 (an adolescent male fifteen to eighteen years old) was placed along the north side of the south patio, and Burial 73-1 (a boy seven to eleven years old) was buried along the east side of the same patio in front of the ancestral shrine room. Interestingly, no evidence of salt production occurs in association with House 91-1.

The family of salt producers occupied the successive house remains within Mound 91 over four generations. The characteristics of the household tomb and the quantity and quality of the offerings placed in it are typical of the households of commoners at Lambityeco. The thirty-three objects composing the offerings for the seven individuals buried in the tomb conform to the average of about five objects per individual buried in the tombs of commoners, which is well below the average of twenty to thirty objects per individual for the tombs of the Lambityeco elite (Lind and Urcid 1983). No elaborate ceramic offering, not even a ceramic effigy vessel, was placed in the salt producers’ tomb.

CHANGES IN SALT PRODUCTION

The analysis of the stratified remains of salt producers’ houses in Mound 91 at Lambityeco supports the hypothesis that salt production was an individual-household enterprise in the earlier years of the Xoo phase (ca. 650–800 CE) and changed to become organized in a workshop area during the last years of the Xoo phase (ca. 800–850 CE). Three salt boilers were associated with the oldest house (House 91-4), five with House 91-3, three with House 91-2, and none with the most recent house (House 91-1). The association of salt boilers with the oldest three houses demonstrates that salt production was carried out by individual households earlier in the Xoo phase. On the other hand, the absence of salt boilers in association with the last, or most recent, house (House 91-1) suggests that salt production was confined to a workshop area during the later years of the Xoo phase.

It could be argued that the absence of salt boilers in association with House 91-1 is the result of sampling error, but the extensive coverage of the excavations makes this unlikely. That new occupants, unrelated to the earlier occupants of the house and nonsalt producers, may have taken over House 91-1 is also improbable because the family tomb continued in use and new occupants hardly would have maintained and used a tomb built for and containing the remains of the ancestors of an unrelated family. The scenario of salt producers abandoning their profession in the last generation and undertaking a new occupation is also unlikely given their tradition as salt producers over several generations. In light of Peterson’s survey and excavation data that indicate a change in the organization of salt production, the most parsimonious explanation for the absence of salt boilers in association with House 91-1 is that the salt producers changed the locus of their salt production activities to a workshop area directly south of their house.

By grouping salt-production activities in a workshop bordering the salt deposits, the need to carry enriched brine over distances was eliminated. Ovens were introduced to conserve fuel and speed up the evaporation process. Salt boilers may have been standardized to around twenty liters in capacity. The smaller-size ollas could be filled with enriched brine at the mixing tubs and transported directly to nearby ovens, thereby eliminating the need for smaller transport ollas used to fill salt boilers larger than twenty liters. The twenty-liter salt boilers could be accommodated more easily in ovens and their smaller size would lead to more rapid evaporation than with the larger salt boilers. Perhaps twenty-liter salt boilers were placed in groups of five or six, as was practiced in the 1940s, with each small salt boiler yielding a kilo of salt and each oven yielding about five or six kilos of salt per evaporation period. If each oven produced about five kilos of salt per day, at least 150 ovens would have been required in the workshop area to produce the 750 kilos of salt per day needed to achieve the average of about 22,000 kilos, which Peterson (1976:110) estimates as Lambityeco’s monthly output during the Xoo phase.

The organization of salt production in a workshop area was most likely carried out by governmental authorities as a way to streamline salt production—making it more efficient and, perhaps, more easily controlled. Additional excavations both in the workshop area and in mounds showing evidence of household salt production are needed to flesh out the particulars of the change in salt production from an individual-household enterprise in the earlier part of the Xoo phase to government-organized workshops in the latter part of the phase. Nevertheless, this change appears well-established based on the survey and excavation data at hand. Government organization of salt production at Lambityeco, however, may have been only part of the more general and wide-sweeping establishment of government control of a variety of economic activities in the Valley of Oaxaca during the latter part of the Xoo phase—including the control of ceramic production as proposed by Feinman (1982).

CERAMIC PRODUCTION AT LAMBITYECO

Apart from salt production, evidence also points to pottery production at Lambityeco (Payne 1970; Feinman 1980). An enormous amount of broken pottery occurs at Lambityeco. From randomly controlled surface collections, Peterson (1976:86) was able to estimate that more than 65 million potsherds occur on the surface of the site alone. Excavations revealed large numbers of rim sherds used in the construction of structure walls—one “altar” had its walls almost entirely built of rim sherds placed horizontally on top of one another, set in adobe mortar, and covered by a thick layer of plaster (Fig. 3.4a); and the façade of a tomb, Tomb 2 in Mound 190 (Paddock, Mogor, and Lind 1968), was also largely composed of rim sherds (Fig. 3.4b). The use of sherds in construction reveals both their abundance during the occupation of the site and the absence of a nearby source of suitable building stone.

A great number of the sherds at Lambityeco, of course, are by-products of the salt industry, which used numerous large salt boilers that fragmented into hundreds of sherds when broken. Peterson (1976:96) was informed by Tlacolula Zapotecs who worked the Lambityeco salt deposits in the 1940s that a single salt boiler had a use-life of about one week. If as many as 120 families were involved in salt production at Lambityeco during the Xoo phase and each family used several salt boilers a week, it is no surprise that the surface of the site should be covered with millions of sherds. The demand for as many as 600–750 salt boilers a week and the difficulty of transporting such large numbers of these big twenty-liter pots over any distance points to the existence of a support industry of potters who specialized in producing salt boilers.

As commented before, the discovery of the remains of a number of salt boilers located in situ in a thick and extensive layer of ash led Swezey (1975) to interpret Mound 91 as a ceramic workshop in which salt boilers were produced. Swezey, following Payne (1970:4), noted that present-day potters from San Marcos Tlapazola—located 7 km south of Lambityeco—do not fire ceramics in kilns. Instead, they arrange pots in a corral-like circle on the ground. Fuel, usually dried maguey leaves, is placed inside and around the outside of the corral-like circle and on top of the pots. The fuel is then ignited to create a bonfire. Thus, Swezey (1975:181) interpreted the remains in Mound 91 as an ancient “bonfire kiln” in which pots to be used as salt boilers were fired.

3.4. Rim sherd construction at Lambityeco

Despite Swezey’s contention, Peterson (1974b:15–17) clearly demonstrated that Mound 91 was a salt-production locus, noting that salt was produced by boiling brine in salt boilers placed over open fires, which would account for the thick layer of ash. Furthermore, ceramic production at San Marcos Tlapazola involves placing the ollas to be fired mouth down, not mouth up as they were found in situ in Mound 91 and as they would be used in salt production (Fig. 3.1f). However, the clinching argument in Peterson’s critique of Swezey is that the salt boilers found in Mound 91 were not new but showed evidence of use. Each contained carbonate laminations on its interior surface indicating that it had held brine.

Although ceramic-production loci in which salt boilers were made almost certainly occur at Lambityeco, to date none has been located and excavated. Interestingly, the only other Xoo phase site in the Lambityeco district that shows evidence of ceramic workshops, Site #103, located 3 km directly west of Lambityeco, was a site in which salt production was also important (Peterson, personal communication, 1987). The ceramic workshops were probably established at Site #103 to produce salt boilers for the salt workers there.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR POTTERY PRODUCTION

Payne (1970), an expert ceramic technologist, undertook studies of pottery making at Lambityeco. Near the salt deposits along the southern edge of the site, he located the source of the warm-brown-color clays used in the production of pottery at Lambityeco. Much of the clay deposit had been exhausted by potters who evidently scraped up the clay with broken pieces of pottery as evidenced by the worn sherds in the area. Using clay from the source, Payne was able to produce duplicates of archaeological pottery found in excavations at Lambityeco, demonstrating that many other types, beside salt boilers, were produced at the site.

The precise location where Payne obtained his clay sample is uncertain. However, Peterson (1974b:17) believed they were taken from an area directly east of the saline clays because potters from San Marcos Tlapazola and several other pottery-producing villages in the Valley of Oaxaca informed him that saline clays would not be suitable for pottery production. To determine the easternmost extent of saline clays, Peterson (1974b:13) obtained and analyzed a series of twelve soil samples from the area. In this manner, he was able to determine the boundaries between the saline clays and the saline-free clays. The latter were most certainly those exploited by the potters of Lambityeco for ceramic production (Fig. 3.2).

3.5. Evidence of ceramic production at Lambityeco

Ample archaeological evidence for pottery production occurs at Lambityeco. Numerous stones used to burnish pots were discovered in excavations (Fig. 3.5a). Swezey (1975:182) showed examples from excavations to potters from San Marcos Tlapazola who identified them as burnishing stones and showed him virtually identical stones they use to burnish pots today. Small, thick, crude saucer-like ceramic objects found in excavations at Lambityeco were identified by Payne (1970:3) as base pats around which concentric rings of clay were placed to form the walls of shallow food-serving bowls of the ubiquitous G-35 type, which occur by the thousands at Lambityeco (Fig. 3.5a). Kiln wasters were uncovered in excavations and are especially evident among G-35 bowls.

One type of pottery of particular interest to archaeologists working at Lambityeco was Balancán or Z Fine Orange. Robert Smith (1958:151) first defined this type in the Maya region. Like the Balancán Fine Orange from that region, the Lambityeco vessels are decorated by incising and plano relief carving. However, whereas the Maya Balancán Fine Orange has a variety of vessel shapes, including deep and shallow bowls and barrel-shaped vases (Smith 1958:152, fig. 1), all the Lambityeco examples are barrel-shaped vases (Fig. 3.5b).

Smith examined the Balancán Fine Orange sherds from Lambityeco. Because they were so well-made, included the same barrel-shaped vases (Smith 1958:152, fig. 1f), and had virtually identical types of incised and plano relief carved motifs to examples from the Tabasco region, he concluded that the Lambityeco examples may have been imports from Tabasco (Paddock, personal communication, 1978). Samples of the Lambityeco Balancán Fine Orange sherds were submitted to Garman Harbottle of the Brookhaven National Laboratory for neutron-activation analysis. The results revealed that the Balancán Fine Orange was made from the same local clays at Lambityeco as the shoddily produced G-35 grayware serving bowls (Paddock, personal communication, 1978).

It would seem that either exceptionally skilled potters from Lambityeco learned to duplicate Balancán Fine Orange or some potters from Tabasco (or other parts of the Maya region) settled at Lambityeco and produced Balancán Fine Orange from local clays. But the procurement of Balancán Fine Orange over several generations by elite households at Lambityeco argues against itinerant potters from the Maya region occasionally visiting Lambityeco and instead points to some permanently settled producers, either immigrants from the Maya region or local potters who learned to duplicate Balancán Fine Orange.

Lambityeco is probably the source for most examples of Balancán Fine Orange found at Monte Albán and other sites within the Valley of Oaxaca, especially the Tlacolula and Zimatlán arms. However, until neutron-activation analysis is done on samples from sites other than Lambityeco, this remains hypothetical. At Monte Albán both plano relief carved motifs (Caso, Bernal, and Acosta 1967:361, fig. 299b) and incised motifs identical to those from Lambityeco occur on barrel-shaped vases (Martínez et al. 2000:218; plate 43; 219–220; figure 99). The Monte Albán vases have rim diameters from 12 cm to 18 cm with a mean of 14 cm (Martínez et al. 2000:218), and although no height measurements were obtainable, Smith (1958:152, fig. 1f) cites a height of 14 cm for the barrel-shaped vase he illustrates from the Maya region. It is possible that Lambityeco produced these Balancán Fine Orange vases as elite chocolate drinking vessels and distributed them through gifting, tribute, or market exchange to members of the nobility at Monte Albán and other sites in the Valley of Oaxaca.

No estimate has been made of the number of families at Lambityeco that specialized in the production of salt boilers and other ceramic artifacts. The demand for as many as 600 to 750 salt boilers a week would surely have kept at least fifteen to twenty families of potters busy because each would have to produce from thirty to forty salt boilers a week to meet the demand. However, the Lambityeco potters also had to meet the demands of the estimated 500 households at Lambityeco, another 1,000 households among the communities of the Lambityeco district, and possibly an additional 1,000 households in the Yagul district who were probably supplied by Lambityeco potters. The demands of these estimated 2,500 households for food-serving bowls, water jars, comales, molcajetes, cooking pots, ladles, and ritual items (such as figurines and the ubiquitous ladle censers found in association with virtually every household) would call for an additional forty to fifty families of potters. A conservative estimate of fifty to seventy-five families, or about 10 to 15 percent of Lambityeco’s population, may have been directly engaged in pottery production.

THE ORGANIZATION OF CERAMIC PRODUCTION

Feinman (1980, 1982) studied Valley of Oaxaca ceramics using a production step model. He argues that if potters are competing for sales in markets, ceramics are produced more carefully and involve more production steps and labor input. Likewise, potters tend to locate themselves away from administrative centers, or on their fringes, to avoid taxation. On the other hand, when potters are organized in government workshops, they produce pots in rapid succession with a minimum of production steps to economize labor input because their “markets” are ensured. Furthermore, workshops tend to be located in administrative centers where they are under government control and supervision.

Feinman’s studies revealed that the highly standardized and shoddily made Xoo phase ceramics involved the fewest number of steps for their production than ceramics from any other phase in the valley’s history. This indicates that pots were “mass-produced” in government workshops with a minimum amount of labor input. Furthermore, Feinman discovered that most Xoo phase ceramic workshops were located in large administrative centers. Among these was the district center of Lambityeco, which had the lowest overall average production step measure for the entire Valley of Oaxaca (Feinman 1982:199). Feinman’s study, then, suggests that Lambityeco potters may have been organized in government workshops instead of functioning as individual entrepreneurs.

Recently, Markens (2004:chapter 7) has questioned Feinman’s contention that Xoo phase pottery production was confined to government workshops. From his studies of pottery production at Monte Albán, he states: “During the Late Classic Period . . . there is little direct evidence indicating that pottery production was directly organized and managed by a bureaucratic elite. On the contrary, the absence of pottery production sites from the area of the Main Plaza and their dispersal throughout the city suggests that pottery production was decentralized or independent” (Markens 2004:421).

Feinman’s and Markens’s hypotheses, however, must be tested by excavations and further analysis before they can be generalized to include the entire Xoo phase. Pottery production, like salt production at Lambityeco, may have been an individual-household enterprise in the earlier years of the Xoo phase. Later, near the end of the Xoo phase, it is possible that potters were organized in government workshops.

Impressionistic observations, made independently by a number of investigators who have studied ceramic artifacts from offerings made during earlier and later years of the Xoo phase at Lambityeco, reveal a marked decline in the quality of those ceramic artifacts made near the end of the Xoo phase. This subjective assessment can be made more objective by comparing G-35 bowls from Tomb 6 with those from Tomb 1. Because both tombs occur in Mound 195, which contains a series of superimposed elite residences, there is no question of comparing offerings from different socioeconomic contexts.

The Tomb 6 offering covers three human generations spanning at least seventy-five years from ca. 725 to 800 CE (a calibrated radiocarbon date of 800 CE is associated with the next to last offering placed in Tomb 6). The stratigraphically later Tomb 1 occurs in a structure with three associated calibrated radiocarbon dates of 825, 830, and 830 CE. A comparison of the decoration of G-35 bowls found in the tombs, which involves burnished designs on the interior bases, shows that 74 percent of the Tomb 6 examples are decorated, but only 42 percent of the Tomb 1 examples manifest decoration and even these are decorated only with the simplest of burnished designs.

The obvious differences in quality between G-35 bowls made between ca. 725 and 800 CE and those made between ca. 800 and 850 CE may be indicative of possible changes in the organization of pottery production at Lambityeco. The lower frequency of pattern burnishing on the interior bases of later G-35 bowls certainly represents the reduction of a “non-economical” production step in their manufacture. Likewise, the obvious carelessness with which these bowls were made is suggestive of rapid production for an “ensured” market. The trends in the production of G-35 bowls, then, implies a possible change in the organization of ceramic production from an individual-household enterprise earlier in the Xoo phase to a government-organized activity in the latter part of the phase.

A second trend also points to possible changes in the organization of ceramic production through time at Lambityeco. The change from producing large and variable-size salt boilers earlier in the Xoo phase to smaller, more standardized salt boilers with high mica contents in their paste late in the Xoo phase may also reflect a shift from ceramic production as an individual-household enterprise to production in government workshops. The higher mica content may have resulted from the nature of the clays in the area in which the government decided to situate the workshop—perhaps the area east of the salt-production workshop, which would be ideally located to supply salt producers with the numerous salt boilers they needed on an ongoing basis (Fig. 3.2).

Perhaps the production of pottery, like salt production, was an individual-household enterprise in the earlier years of the Xoo phase and organized into a workshop area by the government during the later years of the Xoo phase. “Bonfire kilns,” like “bonfire” salt boiling, may have characterized the production of pottery by individual households scattered throughout the community during the early part of the Xoo phase. The government may have introduced pottery workshops with kilns in the later years of the Xoo phase. Kilns were certainly in use at Monte Albán during the latter part of the Xoo phase (ca. 800–850 CE) as excavations by Winter and Payne (1976) have clearly revealed, although there is no evidence for their use earlier in the Xoo phase (Winter, personal communication, 1987). The Monte Albán kilns were associated with specific households but households appear to have been grouped in a potters’ barrio (Winter and Payne 1976:40), which would have facilitated government control of ceramic production. Although changes in G-35 bowls and salt boilers may be indicative of possible changes in the organization of ceramic production at Lambityeco during the Xoo phase, they are not proof of such a change. Likewise, the presence of kilns in association with households in a possible potters’ barrio at Monte Albán during the latter years of the Xoo phase and their apparent absence during the earlier part of the phase are also suggestive—but not proof—of a change in the organization of ceramic production at Monte Albán. Until it can be shown that pottery making was first an individual-household enterprise and that potters were later provided with kilns in government workshops, any proposed change in the organization of ceramic production during the Xoo phase remains an untested hypothesis.

TEXTILE PRODUCTION AT LAMBITYECO

During surveys and excavations, a number of spindle whorls were found at Lambityeco (Fig. 3.6a). Their presence suggests that Lambityeco, like some of the present-day communities near it—Teotitlán del Valle and Santa Ana del Valle—was involved in textile production. Indeed, the Relación de Tlacolula y Mitla reported that the people of Tlacolula engaged in weaving woolen cloaks in the sixteenth century (Canseco 1580:147).

The spindle whorls from excavations at Lambityeco range between 2.6 cm and 5.7 cm in diameter and are from 3 mm to 11 mm thick. Most (80 percent) are relatively small, thin, and lightweight with diameters between 2.6 cm and 3.7 cm and thicknesses from 3 mm to 7 mm. According to Mary H. Parsons (1972), small lightweight spindle whorls were used for spinning cotton fibers into fine thread as opposed to larger and heavier types, which functioned to spin maguey fibers into coarse thread. Although no cotton is grown in the region today, the Relación de Tlacolula y Mitla (Canseco 1580:150) reported that cotton was grown in the Mitla district in the sixteenth century and woven into cotton cloaks. Excavating in the Guilá Naquitz cave near Mitla, Flannery (1970:15) recovered cotton bolls in Xoo phase deposits. Also, the presence of boll weevils in these samples of cotton shows that Xoo phase cotton farmers had to contend with this predictable pest (Warner and Smith 1968).

Evidence for spinning comes from offerings in a tomb and a burial at Lambityeco. Two nearly identical and unusual neckless ceramic jars, or tecomates, covered by conical bowl-like lids were found as offerings in Tomb 6 of Mound 195 and Burial 69-1 of Mound 190. Inside each tecomate were spindle whorls. The association of spindle whorls with these distinctive vessels in two separate offerings in two different mounds led to the idea that the bowls might have constituted spinning kits.

Elsie Clews Parsons (1936:43–45) found that Zapotec women from Mitla spun fibers into thread by twirling the spindle inside a ceramic bowl. Reasoning that twirling spindles inside ceramic bowls might leave pitted surfaces on the interior bases, Lind examined the bases and found that the interiors of the conical bowl-like lids covering the tecomates did show pitting (Fig. 3.6b). From this it was concluded that the tecomates with lids did constitute spinning kits.

3.6. Tools for textile production from Lambityeco

The cotton fibers were probably stored in the tecomates together with the spindles and spindle whorls and covered with the lid to keep the cotton clean. Three small strap handles on the tecomates and lids must have had a cord passed through them to fix the lid tightly to the tecomate to keep dust from entering and settling on the cotton fibers. When spinning the fibers into thread, the lid was removed and inverted and the spindle twirled inside it. The spinning kits placed as offerings in the tomb and burial may have originally contained cotton fibers and wooden spindles with the ceramic spindle whorls. Their lids may have been secured by cords. The cords, wooden spindles, and cotton fibers would have disintegrated, leaving only the ceramic spindle whorls inside as they were found in the offerings.

In addition to spindle whorls, the tecomate in the Tomb 6 offering also had two small manos (grinding stones) and a double cup inside it. The manos were too small for grinding corn. An examination of their grinding surfaces revealed traces of red pigment, perhaps hematite. These stones, then, may have been used to grind red mineral pigment into powder to make red dye with which to tint cotton threads. The function of the double cup is unknown. It seems unlikely that it held different colored dyes used to tint the threads because the interiors showed no signs of having contained pigments (Fig. 3.6b).

Tomb 6 contained the skeletal remains of both males and females; therefore, it was not possible to determine whether the spinning kit was intended as an offering for a male or female. However, Burial 69-1 in Mound 190 was an adult female and the spinning kit was placed as an offering for her. Thus, it seems evident that spinning was a female activity during the Xoo phase, like it was in the recent past among the Zapotecs.

Although spinning was until recently a female activity among the Zapotecs, weaving is not. Men in Teotitlán del Valle, Santa Ana del Valle, and Mitla are the weavers today, although this may reflect a shift in the gender of producers with the introduction of Spanish mechanized wooden looms; weaving was evidently a female activity in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Bone battens used as weaving implements have been found in offerings in Tomb 2 and Tomb 6 at Lambityeco (Fig. 3.6c). However, because these tombs contained both males and females, it was impossible to determine if the battens were contained in offerings associated with males or females. Therefore, although archaeological evidence for weaving occurs, it is not feasible to assign this activity to either gender on the basis of the extant data.

The extent of textile production at Lambityeco remains unknown. The evidence at hand is limited to the spinning of cotton and weaving and is restricted to elite households. However, given the extent of weaving in the area today and in the past, it seems likely that Lambityeco was a center for textile production. Also, considering the extent of maguey cultivation in the region today it seems probable that maguey, as well as cotton, textiles would have been produced at Lambityeco. The Relación de Tlacolula y Mitla reported that cotton cloaks were restricted to the elite, whereas maguey-fiber garments were the lot of commoners (Canseco 1580:146, 149). At least 20 percent of the spindle whorls recovered at Lambityeco were large and most likely used to spin maguey fibers into coarse threads that were woven into maguey-fiber cloaks. A careful study designed to search for evidence of textile production at Lambityeco would be welcome.

SHELL WORKING

Peterson (1976:94) reports that at least some of the raw material used to make shell artifacts at Lambityeco came from both the Gulf and Pacific coasts. Cira Martínez and Robert Markens (personal communication, 2004) excavated a commoner household east of Mound 195 that was involved in the manufacture of shell artifacts. At this time it is uncertain whether or not the shell working was a household enterprise producing for the market or done under the patronage of the local elite. A shell pendant, a shell bead, and a shell disk have been found in the Tomb 6 offering in Mound 195 (see Fig. 7.19). In addition, Burial 61-1 in Mound 190 had an offering that included two small shell disks with concentric grooves. Also, Burial 68-3, placed above Tomb 2 in Mound 190, originally had as an offering some kind of wooden mask, probably representing the rain god, whose eyes, made of bone, had shell inlays as irises and whose mouth had a protruding forked serpent tongue also made from shell. Finally, Burial 69-2, also from Mound 190, had as an offering a shell pendant made from a Latirus ceratus specimen.

LAMBITYECO IMPORTS

With nearly half of Lambityeco’s population engaged in nonagricultural specialization and because of its location in an area with among the poorest farmlands around it and the lowest rainfall in the valley, its major import must have been the corn needed to feed its populace. Using Kowalewski’s (1982:158) estimate of an average of 225 kilos per person per year, the 2,700 persons at Lambityeco would have required about 600 metric tons of corn for their sustenance. Much of this corn would need to be imported.

There are at least two sources for corn imports. The large Xoo phase community of Santa Ana del Valle, 2 km directly north of Lambityeco, is situated in the piedmont zone where rainfall is higher, averaging more than 700 mm per year. Kowalewski (1982:155) noted that communities in these piedmont zones may be expected to have produced a successful harvest yielding on the average between 0.4 and 2.0 metric tons of corn per hectare each year. He suggested that during the Xoo phase, Monte Albán adopted a piedmont farming strategy to augment corn supplies necessary to support its urban populace (Kowalewski 1982:203). The same strategy may have been used to help support Lambityeco and this may account for the large population of Santa Ana del Valle. However, this piedmont strategy is risky since crop failures may occur because of local variations in rainfall from year to year (Kowalewski 1982:155–156). Crop failures would mean that not only the urban population of Lambityeco would have suffered but also the many farmers in the piedmont. More secure sources for corn imports, then, would have been desirable.

A more reliable source is the high-quality irrigated farmland in the Yagul district. Kowalewski (1982:151) reports that these irrigated farmlands produced between 2.0 and 2.8 metric tons of corn per hectare each year without the risk of crop failure. As noted in Chapter 2, there is no evidence for craft specialization in the Yagul district and the people there must have imported salt, textiles, and most of their ceramics from Lambityeco. Whether or not Yagul was able to produce enough surplus to feed the entire population of Lambityeco is uncertain. However, it is likely that enough corn yields were produced to supply much of the 600 metric tons needed by the people of Lambityeco each year. Therefore, an exchange network may have been established that permitted the inhabitants of Lambityeco to obtain much of the corn they needed annually from the Yagul district.

Lambityeco, then, probably relied on a combination of corn import strategies. One involved the secure supplies from the Yagul district, and the other involved a riskier piedmont strategy centered at Santa Ana del Valle. Because the question of feeding the population of Lambityeco is an important one, investigating the possible development of a piedmont strategy at Santa Ana del Valle is needed. Certainly, from carefully planned excavations there it could be determined how early in the Xoo phase a possible piedmont strategy was developed and, perhaps, how dependent upon such a strategy Lambityeco became during the course of the Xoo phase.

CRAFT IMPORTS

Although economic specialization at Lambityeco included salt production, pottery making, textiles, and at least some shell working, there is a notable lack of evidence for certain types of craft specialization. In particular, no evidence exists for the production of obsidian tools or for the production of manos and metates (Lind 1971; Bach 1971). Obsidian tools and manos and metates occur as finished products at Lambityeco, indicating that they were imported by the inhabitants of the site. The probable source that supplied Lambityeco with obsidian tools and manos and metates was the neighboring district center of Macuilxóchitl, located 8 km west of Lambityeco.

Finsten’s (1983) surveys of Macuilxóchitl revealed the presence of Xoo phase obsidian workshops. In 1980, Kowalewski and Lind made a comparison of obsidian from the Macuilxóchitl workshops with finished products from Lambityeco. The obsidian in both instances included a dense black variety and a gray-streaked variety. Peterson (1976:92) sent samples of the Lambityeco obsidian to Jay Johnson at Southern Illinois University for source determination. Johnson’s analysis revealed that the gray-streaked obsidian came from Pico de Orizaba, Veracruz, and the black obsidian from Altotonga, Veracruz (Peterson, personal communication, 1983). The obsidian was probably obtained from the Veracruz sources through Monte Albán’s long-distance trade connections and some channeled to Macuilxóchitl for processing and distribution to communities in the Tlacolula arm of the valley, such as Lambityeco.

Macuilxóchitl is only 8 km directly north of San Juan Teitipac, the present-day center for the production of manos, metates, and molcajetes. Finsten’s (1983) surveys of Macuilxóchitl also revealed workshops for producing ground-stone tools, such as manos and metates. Lambityeco probably imported these items from the Macuilxóchitl workshops. The source of one extremely large mano, however, may have been Monte Albán, where Blanton (1978:83, 86) found a probable workshop that produced what he called “monster manos.” The very large mano was found in a tomb offering at Lambityeco.²

Another item, greenstone beads, was almost certainly imported into Lambityeco from Monte Albán. Peterson (1976:92, 94) reported that nearly half of the greenstone beads uncovered in excavations at Lambityeco were made from chrysocolla, or copper-stained chert, which occurs in the mountains around the valley. No workshops specializing in the production of greenstone beads have been found at Lambityeco. However, Blanton (1978:77) found evidence for workshops at Monte Albán that specialized in producing greenstone beads and these workshops may have been the suppliers of the greenstone beads found at Lambityeco.

THE LAMBITYECO MARKET PLAZAS

“Ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources indicate that markets were an important economic institution throughout Mesoamerica in pre-Hispanic times” (Hirth 1998:452). As a district center with economic specializations, Lambityeco might be expected to have had a market plaza where goods could be exchanged on a daily and/or periodic basis. However, as Hirth (1998:453) has pointed out, the archaeological identification of marketplaces is difficult. Unfortunately, his distributional approach, based on how households were provisioned in Xochicalco, was published long after the Lambityeco surveys were conducted and therefore was not available to investigators. Instead, a less desirable configurational approach (Hirth 1998:453) bolstered by some anecdotal artifactual evidence and comparative data from surface surveys has been employed in an attempt to identify market plazas at Lambityeco.

Evidence for a possible market plaza was first discovered in 1968 by Lind and Joseph Mogor, who were investigating a looted tomb near Mound 134. About 10 m from the tomb, Lind found a stone with a circular hole in its center that reminded him of similar stones used to anchor awning ropes or to support awning poles in the present-day Tlacolula market. According to Peterson (1976:83, plate 18), Diskin, who has made an intensive ethnographic study of the Tlacolula market, refers to these support stones as “sun stones” because of their use in erecting awnings to protect vendors and their products from the sun. The area in which the “sun stone” was found, west of Mound 134, was flat with no evidence of mounds and covered some 100 m north to south by 50 m east to west—an area roughly the size of a football field. Although no intensive study of this area has been done, it is a possible market plaza area and therefore will be referred to as the “south market plaza” (see Fig. 3.2).

THE NORTH MARKET PLAZA

During his surveys of Lambityeco, Peterson (1974a:14) located a large, flat, moundless area north of Mound 155 that he thought might be a market plaza. The area measures roughly 50 m east to west and 65 m north to south and “was bounded by large high structures on three sides (north, south, and west)” (Peterson 1976:90). Unlike the hypothetical south market plaza, this area has been the subject of intensive systematic survey and limited excavations.

From a carefully designed systematic survey, Peterson (1974a:14; 1974b: 23; 1976:83–84) demonstrated that the surface materials in this area were clearly distinct from surface materials found in the salt workshop area and from surface materials in areas of domestic habitation. As would be expected in a space used as a market, this area had the highest standard deviation and greatest coefficient of variations of all three areas sampled, reflecting the diversity of activities carried out there (Peterson 1974a:9). In addition, there was a very low frequency of ladle censers fragments. Because these items were used in ritual practices, their sparse representation would rule out its use as an area for religious ceremonies (Peterson 1974a:16).

Peterson (1974a:16) concluded that the survey data supported the hypothesis of a north market plaza. In further support of his hypothesis, he located two “sun stones” there (Peterson 1976:83). He also noted that the north market plaza had the highest density of G-35 bowl fragments of all three areas sampled. These bowls are known to be of graded sizes, and in the absence of a system of weights in Prehispanic Mesoamerican markets, Peterson (1976:91–92) hypothesized that they were used as systems of graded measures, thereby accounting for their high density in the north market plaza.

Although unrelated to Peterson’s work and not designed to test this area as a possible market plaza, William Fowler (1974) excavated thirty 2 m by 2 m stratigraphic test pits in the area as part of his random sample stratigraphic test pit project at Lambityeco. Fowler uncovered numerous small holes filled with sherds and ash scattered throughout the area. Peterson (1976:91) has pointed out that these types of mini-middens are what would be expected in a market plaza:

The small ash-filled depressions . . . bear a striking resemblance to similar areas used by transient vendors and buyers at modern markets in the Valley of Oaxaca. Here, the individuals dig a small hole in the ground . . . and start a fire. The edges of such depressions support metal rods or wooden rods and staves which support ollas, by their handles or necks, over the fires. Such ash filled depressions are used by transients to cook their meals (or food to sell) while they sell or buy in markets. (Peterson 1974a:15)

In contrast to these mini-middens, Peterson noted that the household middens of permanent residences at Lambityeco were distinctive. “Surface studies of other areas of the site . . . suggest that a single large probably shared trash area or areas may have been used at Lambityeco by permanent residents” (Peterson 1974a:15).

Fowler’s stratigraphic test pits also revealed the presence of house floors within the sampled area (Peterson 1976:91). Peterson (1974a:15) reported that none of these floors appeared to correspond to large elite houses. Instead, they evidently belonged to houses of commoners. The presence of houses of commoners appears to contradict the idea that this area was a market plaza. However, in one of his stratigraphic test pits, Fowler found a tomb that provided information that may help to resolve this apparent contradiction. Although he did not expose the layout of the house that contained the tomb (Urcid 1983:134), the excavation exposed remains of superimposed patio floors in front of the tomb and a possible room floor or raised walkway above it.

THE HOUSE OF TOMB 10

This house was located near the center of the presumed north market plaza. The analysis of the barely known architectural context revealed the presence of three superimposed patio floors corresponding to three successive houses (Urcid 1983:134–139). Tomb 10 was associated with the two oldest stratified house remains, House 3 and House 2, whereas a partially slab-lined grave built above the tomb—Burial 73-15B—was associated with the last or most recent house in the sequence, House 1 (Fig. 3.7).

The tomb contained the skeletal remains of at least four adults: a male (forty to fifty years old), a female (twenty to thirty years old), and two other adults of indeterminate age and sex. The slab-lined grave directly above the tomb contained the skeletal remains of one adult—Burial 73-15B—whose skull and long bones had been removed, making it difficult to determine the individual’s age or sex.

3.7. Plan and profile of Lambityeco Tomb 10

The sequence of burials indicates that the successive house remains were occupied over three generations, or about seventy-five years. The married couple who headed the household and occupied House 3 was interred in Tomb 10. Their descendants, the second-generation married couple that headed the household and who occupied House 2, were also buried in the tomb, which accounts for the four adult individuals buried there. The third-generation married couple who headed the household occupied House 1. One of these two individuals was buried in the slab-lined grave and then had their bones removed when House 1 was abandoned.

Peterson’s (1974a:15) observation that the house remains Fowler uncovered were all houses of commoners is borne out relative to the House of Tomb 10. This house was certainly a commoner’s abode. The tomb was not a masonry construction but simply a hollow dug into the tepetate. The mouth of the hollow, facing west and serving as the tomb’s entrance, was framed by two stones functioning as “door jambs” and a third resting on top of them as a “lintel” decorated on the exterior with red painted designs consisting of a square flanked by vertical lines. A large stone slab functioned as the tomb’s door. The four individuals buried in the tomb received only fourteen objects as offerings, or an average of about three objects per person. The offering is at the lower end of the range typical for offerings in the tombs of commoners and below the average for the salt producers who occupied Mound 91 and who were buried in Tomb 9.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NORTH MARKET PLAZA

Determining when the last structure in the House of Tomb 10 was abandoned and to what seventy-five-year time span within the Xoo phase the successive house remains correspond is critical for an understanding of when and if a north market plaza was established in this area. However, no radiocarbon dates were obtained from the sequence of house remains, and the three objects placed as an offering with Burial 73-15B, associated with House 1, were the types of objects that occur with equanimity throughout the Xoo phase. Nevertheless, objects placed with the tomb offering include at least one unusual vessel that can be tentatively assigned a more specific date within the Xoo phase because it has been found elsewhere at Lambityeco.

This unusual object is a double cup (Fig. 3.7). Only one other tomb at Lambityeco has been found to contain double cups. Tomb 6 in Mound 195 has two such items as part of its offering. One of these, which is most similar to the Tomb 10 double cup (Fig. 3.6b), came from an offering that dates to the earlier part of the Xoo phase. This suggests that the Tomb 10 offering to which the double cup belonged was probably deposited in ca. 750–775 CE.³

Tomb 10 was used over two generations, or about fifty years, and was associated with the two earliest stratified houses—House 3 and House 2. Although the double cup may have been placed as an offering for any one of the individuals buried in the tomb, it probably formed part of the offering for one of the last two individuals, those who occupied House 2. Earlier offerings tend to be broken as later burials and offerings are placed. The double cup in Tomb 10 was found intact and unbroken. Therefore, it likely accompanied the last burial. If House 2 was abandoned in ca. 750–775 CE, then the stratigraphically later House 1 was probably abandoned a generation later, or in ca. 775–800 CE.

The abandonment of House 1 probably corresponded to the establishment of the north market plaza in ca. 800 CE. The House of Tomb 10 left no mound despite the fact that it included an accumulation of three successive houses built one on top of the other. Elsewhere at Lambityeco houses have been excavated where no mound was present because they were purposefully leveled in order to build other structures (see Chapter 8). It seems probable, therefore, that the House of Tomb 10 and the other house remains found by Fowler had been leveled to establish the north market plaza in ca. 800 CE and that is why no mounds remained in this area to mark their presence.

Some additional evidence indirectly supports the idea that the north market plaza was established around 800 CE. Peterson (1976:90) observed that large structures bound it in the north, south, and west. The last phase of construction of one of these large structures (Mound 195) is known to have occurred between ca. 800 and 850 CE. At that time, Mound 195 was converted into a large civic residential complex or PPA (Structure 195-1) located along the northeast side of the market plaza. Furthermore, a probable temple complex (TPA) represented by Lambityeco’s largest mound, 12 m high Mound 155, was located along the south side of the market plaza. One of Fowler’s stratigraphic test pits was excavated in the plaza of Mound 155 and showed it to be a single-phase construction like the plaza associated with Mound 195 (Structure 195-1). It is very likely, therefore, that between ca. 800 and 850 CE, Mound 155 was transformed into a temple complex (TPA) at the same time Mound 195 was converted to a civic residential complex (PPA). The north market plaza, situated between these two monumental complexes, was probably established coincidental with their construction.

Because the area where the north market plaza was laid out evidently supplanted previous houses of commoners, the location of any possible earlier market plaza remains to be discovered at Lambityeco. The probable location of this possible early Xoo phase market was most likely the hypothetical south market plaza, which is located near the salt deposits. Several large mounds occur on the north, south, and east sides of this possible early Xoo phase market plaza (Fig. 3.2).

Peterson (1974b:26) suggested that the ancient community of Lambityeco grew northward from the salt deposits during the Xoo phase. A fairly dense concentration of large mounds occurs in the south-central portion of the site and a more dispersed pattern farther north. Following this argument, the possible shift in the market plaza from south to north could have occurred with growth of the community. There is, however, no sound evidence that the community grew northward. The possible movement of the marketplace from a southern to a northern location during the latter part of the Xoo phase almost certainly involved more than a mere change in the demographic center of the community. Rather, such a shift in the location of the community’s market plaza late in the Xoo phase appears to correspond to other coeval economic changes, including the reorganization of salt production in a workshop area and possibly a similar reorientation of workshop production of ceramics. If so, the construction of the north market plaza would have been part of a more wide-sweeping plan for economic reorganization at Lambityeco.

XOO PHASE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AT LAMBITYECO

Lambityeco was the major market center for the communities in its district during the Xoo phase. It was the only community in its district that showed evidence for a wide range of economic and craft specializations. Lambityeco was the valley’s major salt-producing center and as much as one-fourth of its population may have been engaged in salt production. It was also the center of pottery making that provided ceramic artifacts for the communities of its district and, probably, the neighboring Yagul district as well. A significant proportion, perhaps 10 to 15 percent, of Lambityeco’s population may have been engaged in ceramic production. It was probably also a center for textiles that produced both maguey-fiber cloaks and other garments as well as a much lesser amount of cotton cloaks and other garments for the populace of its district. Shell ornaments were also produced.

Lambityeco also imported a number of products for distribution to the populace of its district. Obsidian artifacts, manos, and metates were seemingly imported as finished products from the neighboring district center of Macuilxóchitl. Greenstone beads and extra large manos may have been imported as finished products from the workshops at Monte Albán. Lime and cotton may have been imported as raw materials from the Mitla district.

Lambityeco’s major import, however, was probably the 600 metric tons of corn needed each year to sustain its population. The Yagul district, a secure source of corn imports, probably channeled some of its corn surpluses to Lambityeco in return for salt, ceramics, and possibly textiles. During the course of the Xoo phase, Lambityeco may have become increasingly dependent on the riskier corn surpluses produced by the communities in the piedmont zone in the northern part of its district with the large community of Santa Ana del Valle being a principal supplier.

Peterson’s (1974a:16) investigations have suggested the existence of a marketplace at Lambityeco—the north market plaza. Lambityeco’s marketplace probably served as the locus through which most of the imported and locally produced goods were distributed to the populace of its district. The marketplace may have supplied the needs of Lambityeco’s inhabitants on a daily basis. Periodically, however, the district market center swelled as the populace from the communities in the Lambityeco district and neighboring districts converged to exchange goods.

Given the economic interdependence of the different districts in the Tlacolula arm and in the Valley of Oaxaca, it seems likely that a regional exchange network linked by a series of market centers, like Lambityeco, existed during the Xoo phase, much as it does today (Diskin and Cook 1975), to ensure the distribution of goods to meet the needs of households throughout the valley. Indeed, a Xoo phase market plaza similar to the one at Lambityeco has been identified by Finsten (1983) at the neighboring district center of Macuilxóchitl. Market day at the district center must have involved many producer-vendors, who bartered their goods for the products they required for their own consumption, and merchants, who bartered for goods they would carry to another district market center to exchange (Cook 1975:188). Market days were probably staggered at district centers so that Lambityeco’s market day was different from Macuilxóchitl’s market day. In this way, merchants could acquire goods in the Macuilxóchitl market to carry to the Lambityeco market for exchange and vice versa.

The role of local government at Lambityeco in organizing the production of goods and in controlling their exchange in the marketplace seems to have been limited during the earlier part of the Xoo phase (ca. 650–800 CE). Salt production was an individual-household enterprise during this time. Ceramic and textile production also may have been coeval household enterprises. The possible south market plaza, near the salt deposits, may have been Lambityeco’s early Xoo phase marketplace but this remains to be determined.

Around 800 CE, a significant change in the government’s role in organizing the production and exchange of goods took place at Lambityeco. Salt production was organized in a workshop area and ceased to be an individual-household enterprise. Salt production was made more efficient by locating the workshops next to the salt deposits and by introducing mixing tubs and ovens and, perhaps, standardized salt boilers to speed up the process of evaporation and conserve fuel. Ceramic production also may have been confined to a workshop area near the clay deposits and made more efficient by the introduction of kilns and the reduction of noneconomical production steps, such as pattern burnishing.

The marketplace was probably relocated from the south market plaza to the north market plaza around the same time. Relocating the marketplace involved leveling houses of commoners in the area selected to serve as the north market plaza. A civic residential complex or PPA (Structure 195-1) that served as the residence and government offices of Lambityeco’s ruler was built along the northeast side of the market plaza, and a probable temple complex or TPA (Mound 155) that may have served as Lambityeco’s religious center was constructed along the south side of the market plaza. These two monumental complexes, then, dominated the north market plaza and may have been situated to facilitate the collection of taxes and tithes from market-goers by Lambityeco’s political and religious authorities.

NOTES

1. Winter (1974:986) was the first to propose that only married couples who headed households were buried in the household tomb. In a previous report on Lambityeco (Lind and Urcid 1983), Winter’s observations were further substantiated. By counting the minimum number of individuals of both sexes buried in a given tomb, it is possible to ascertain the number of couples represented and to calculate the number of generations a tomb associated with a particular house was utilized.

2. Urcid was told by Alejandro Aguilar, a Tlacolula Zapotec, that in the recent past stone (basalt?) from Cerro Yegüih at the eastern edge of Lambityeco (see Fig. 3.2) was used to produce manos and metates. It is possible that Xoo phase ground-stone tool workshops occur at Lambityeco, although surveys around Cerro Yegüih and elsewhere did not reveal their presence.

3. The Tomb 6 double cup was found inside the spinning kit for one of the females buried in the tomb (Fig. 3.6b). The last interment in it was a female who was buried on top of a layer of rubble from the collapsed roof of the tomb in ca. 800 CE. The spinning kit was beneath the rubble layer and therefore placed as an offering for one of the two females buried in the tomb before her in ca. 750 or 775 CE.