scholarly journals All That Glitters Is Not Plumbate: Diffusion and Imitation of Plumbate Pottery during the Early Postclassic Period (AD 900–1200) at the Malpaís of Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsa Jadot ◽  
Grégory Pereira ◽  
Hector Neff ◽  
Michael D. Glascock
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Know How ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Instrumental Neutron Activation

In Mesoamerica, the Early Postclassic (AD 900–1200) is characterized by the long-distance circulation of pottery with a very hard and shiny coating with a metallic aspect, known as Plumbate ware. Plumbate is linked stylistically to the Toltec culture but was produced in workshops in Soconusco (Chiapas). The discovery of a similar collection of sherds during recent work at the site of El Palacio (Zacapu, Michoacán) shows that Plumbate ware also reached this region of Western Mexico. We carried out instrumental neutron activation analyses (INAA) on 11 of the Zacapu fragments and compared the results to the data from ceramic pastes from the region of Soconusco and Pátzcuaro Basin (Michoacán). Ten sherds were produced in Michoacán and are thus a local imitation, whereas the last fragment corresponds to a Tohil-type Plumbate paste and was transported over a long distance. This raises questions of the modalities for the circulation of this pot and the conditions allowing for production of an imitation (transfer of technical know-how?), which we suggest is linked to the Toltec culture in the center of Mexico.

The Business of Narrative at Tula: An Analysis of the Vestibule Frieze, Trade, and Ritual

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Kristan-Graham
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Important Center ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
As If

The so-called frieze of the Caciques at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is an 8-m-long bench with most of its original polychromed face intact. It formed part of a larger composition that once ran around the perimeter of the Vestibule, a colonnaded hall that served as a foyer for Pyramid B. The composition of profile males is adapted to look as if they are actually marching around the room toward the pyramid. Although Hugo Moedano Koer (1947) identified the figures as caciques or local chiefs, an analysis of architectural setting, subject matter, and ethnohistory suggests instead that the figures represent merchants engaged in rituals related to trade. This new reading demonstrates that Tula had decorative programs paralleling its development as an important center of long-distance exchange during the Early Postclassic period, and that merchants from Tula may have been a plausible prototype for Aztec pochteca.

POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE EVERYDAY IN POSTCLASSIC OAXACA

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Joyce ◽  
Marc N. Levine ◽  
Stacie M. King ◽  
Jessica Hedgepeth Balkin ◽  
Sarah B. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Market Exchange ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Regional Authority ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Late Postclassic

AbstractWe use excavations of low-status houses to explore Postclassic political and economic transformations in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca. Following the collapse of Classic period political institutions, commoners experienced greater economic and political autonomy. Residential excavations at Río Viejo indicate that commoners took advantage of the absence of regional authority to gain greater control over surplus craft products, especially cotton thread, as well as access to social valuables and long distance trade. By the Late Postclassic period, the region was once again dominated by powerful rulers. Yet household excavations at Tututepec show that Late Postclassic commoners continued to control some surplus craft production and had access to social valuables like copper and polychrome pottery via market exchange. We argue that Late Postclassic political relations were a product of negotiations among elites and commoners that in part reflect the greater economic autonomy and political power that Early Postclassic people had acquired.

Obsidian-Artifact Source Analysis for the Mixtequilla Region, South-Central Veracruz, Mexico

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Stark ◽  
Lynette Heller ◽  
Michael D. Glascock ◽  
J. Michael Elam ◽  
Hector Neff
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
South Central ◽  
Gulf Coast Region ◽  
Comparative Information ◽  
Coast Region

Neutron activation and statistical analyses establish source ascriptions for 201 obsidian artifacts representing Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic period contexts in the Gulf Coast region of Mexico. Zaragoza-Oyameles, Puebla, and Pico de Orizaba, Veracruz, are the most common sources, but procurement patterns and technology shifted during the archaeological sequence. Comparative information is discussed for all periods, but especially the distribution of Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian in the Classic period is examined. The distribution network for this obsidian served several regions. The importance of long-distance obsidian distribution for Teotihuacán is called into question.

Elemental analysis of medicinal plants from different sites by instrumental neutron activation analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 4892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratna Raju M.* ◽  
Madhusudhana Rao P. V. ◽  
Seshi Reddy T. ◽  
Raju M. K. ◽  
Brahmaji Rao J. S. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Activation Analysis ◽  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Neutron Activation ◽  
Gamma Ray ◽  
Elemental Content ◽  
Soil Composition ◽  
Gamma Ray Spectrometer ◽  
Instrumental Neutron Activation

A study was undertaken to evaluate the inorganic elements for humans in two Indian medicinal plants leaves, namely Sphaeranthus indicus, and Cassia fistula by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). INAA experiment was performed by using 20 kW KAMINI Reactor at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam. The emitted gamma rays were measured using gamma ray spectrometer. The concentrations of Al, Br, Ca, Fe, K, La, Mg, Mn, Na, Sc, V and Zn were determined in the selected medicinal plants. The medicinal leaves are using in treatment of various important ailments. The elemental content in selected medicinal leaves is various proportions depending on the soil composition, location of plant specimen and the climate in which the plant grows.

The Political Theory of Data: Institutions, Algorithms, & Formats in Racial Redlining

2021 ◽  
pp. 009059172110278
Author(s):  
Colin Koopman
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
The Political ◽  
Know How ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Emergent Literature

Despite widespread recognition of an emergent politics of data in our midst, we strikingly lack a political theory of data. We readily acknowledge the presence of data across our political lives, but we often do not know how to conceptualize the politics of all those data points—the forms of power they constitute and the kinds of political subjects they implicate. Recent work in numerous academic disciplines is evidence of the first steps toward a political theory of data. This article maps some limits of this emergent literature with an eye to enriching its theoretical range. The literature on data politics, both within political theory and elsewhere, has thus far focused almost exclusively on the algorithm. This article locates a further dimension of data politics in the work of formatting technology or, more simply, formats. Formats are simultaneously conceptual and technical in the ways they define what can even count as data, and by extension who can count as data and how they can count. A focus on formats is of theoretical value because it provides a bridge between work on the conceptual contours of categories and the technology-centric literature on algorithms that tends to ignore the more conceptual dimensions of data technology. The political insight enabled by format theory is shown in the context of an extended interrogation of the politics of racialized redlining.

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