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chapter 7 0

HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY
IN CENTRAL
AND WESTERN
MESOAMERICA

Patricia Fournier G. and

Thomas H. Charlton

Recently there has been increasing interest in historical archaeology on a world-

wide scale. We have published a number of papers dealing with the emergence
and growth of historical archaeology in Mexico in general (Charlton and Fournier
G. 2007; Fournier G. 2003; Fournier-G. and Miranda-Flores 1996), and in west-
ern and northern Mesoamerica specifically (Charlton et al. 2009), considering the
characteristics of diverse research strategies and the incorporation of different
approaches as used by historical archaeology in these regions. Other studies have
addressed historical archaeology briefly or focused on particular topics of interest
(e.g., Palka 2009; Van Buren 2010).
Here we briefly summarize background information relevant to the devel-
opment of historical archaeology in Mexico, and we present key research themes
to examine the current status of historical archaeology in central and western
Mesoamerica (Figure 70.1).

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historical archaeology 917

Sinaloa de Leyva

San Blas
Mexico City
Western and Northern
Mesoamerica Eastern
Pátzcuaro Oaxaca City Mesoamerica

Isthmus of
Tehuantepec
Soconusco
N

0 400 km

Figure 70.1 Mesoamerica with subareas and important places mentioned in the text.

General Background
Scholars studying the archaeology of the Late Postclassic period and relating the
material remains to available textual sources are in essence practicing historical
archaeology (e.g., Charlton and Fournier G. 2007). The term “historical archaeol-
ogy” in the New World, however, is usually applied to periods following initial
European contact. In the case of central Mesoamerica and particularly in the Basin
of Mexico these would be the Colonial (1521–1820 ad) and the post-independence
or Republican (1821 ad–present) periods.
This field of inquiry has emerged and expanded as a new research strategy that
parallels and connects with Mesoamerican archaeology’s traditional focus on the
rich Pre-Columbian cultural resources. It has been aided in Mexico by legislation
that since 1972 has required that archaeologists protect and study pre-conquest and
historical remains that are threatened by contemporary construction activities
(Charlton et al. 2009), lending impetus to historical archaeology investigations,
under the norms mandated by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
(INAH) and carried out under its supervision.

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918 the spanish conquest

The focus of these studies is on the post-contact processes and outcomes of

cultural changes in (1) indigenous Mesoamerican cultures; (2) the cultures of
Hispanic and other Old World origins newly introduced to Mesoamerica; and (3)
those emerging syncretic cultures with various combinations of Mesoamerican,
Old World cultures, and new syntheses developing at any time from the Spanish
conquest in the early sixteenth century to the present day (Charlton et al. 2009;
Fournier G. 2003).
Investigative projects are often part of salvage or rescue archaeology involving
a great deal of fieldwork, as well as an embrace of post-conquest studies including
the viceregal era, the post-Independence nineteenth century up to the early 1900s,
and rural and urban problem-oriented research topics.
There are many different trends within post-conquest historical archaeology
research as practiced in Mexico today. Such diversity of approaches is due in part to
the institutional contexts within which these activities are conducted. Such diver-
sity is common in the current worldwide burgeoning field of historical archaeol-
ogy. It reflects both a dynamic field and a recently emerging field (Charlton and
Fournier G. 2007: 186).
During the past four decades research on historic sites has been carried out by
many Mexican and foreign investigators. These studies can be grouped into three
categories: (1) studies where the historic past is treated as an archaeological topic
in the same manner as the prehispanic past; (2) studies where historic sites have
been analyzed as part of major programs of architectural restoration; and (3) stud-
ies where investigators have shown interest in the development of a scientific form
of historical archaeology focused on the inference of social processes (Fournier-G.
and Miranda-Flores 1996) within different implicit or explicit theoretical frame-
works, ranging from culture history to postprocessual approaches.

Key Research Themes

Conservation, Salvage, and Rescue Archaeology

The movement to preserve Colonial and Republican buildings stimulated the
growth of institutional historical archaeology in Mexico. The number of projects
undertaken increased substantially with the legislated need to conduct salvage and
rescue operations. Much of the data derived from these projects have been used to
examine general theoretical questions of culture contact and hybridity along with
the construction of social systems, identity, and meaning.
Many historical archaeology projects have focused on the conservation and
restoration of convents, monasteries, churches, chapels, hospitals, and palaces
in urban centers, either to create tourist attractions or to remodel buildings for

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historical archaeology 919

such public use as universities, government offices, banks, and museums. Mexico
City, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Morelos have been the main centers for these types of
projects that include research on the architectural history of the structural com-
plex and basic or detailed studies of the archaeological materials recovered (e.g.,
Córdova Tello 1992; Gómez Serafín and Fernández Dávila 2007; Fournier G. 1990;
Hernández Pons 1997; Juárez Cossio 1989; Salas Contreras 2006).
The archaeological record in urban sites often is very complex, due to the prev-
alence of disturbed deposits and the multiple transformations of spatial use over
time (e.g., Fournier G. 1990; Gómez Goyzueta 2007). The discovery of the layout of
coeval architectural features, such as houses and the recovery of artifacts that were
left inside rooms or discarded into trash pits are seldom possible. Occasionally, at
some sites, the ceramics recovered from domestic contexts have shown the poten-
tial to provide insights on household consumer patterns that may reflect dominant
ideologies, identity, power structures, and negotiation (Rodríguez-Alegría 2005).
Salvage projects in rural areas seldom cover historic sites because Pre-
Columbian sites are the priority. However, in the Soconusco region in Chiapas,
a Dominican church was studied in detail prior to the construction of a dam
(Beristáin Bravo 1996).
At the Santa Inés site, located close to the Augustinian monastery of Zempoala,
Hidalgo, a sector of a Late Postclassic to early Colonial-period Otomí town was

Figure 70.2 Santa Inés site, Hidalgo. Excavation of early Colonial houses and patios,
with the foundations of a cuezcomatl.

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920 the spanish conquest

excavated as part of salvage operations. Architectural features associated with

houses and patios included the foundations of several cuezcomatl, or barns for
storing corn (Figure 70.2). Although a few metal artifacts and coins were found,
ceramic evidence indicated that life continued after the conquest without major
changes in material culture other than the introduction of a few glazed vessels.

Regional and Site Research Projects

Charlton’s investigations in the eastern Teotihuacan Valley within the Basin of Mexico,
near Otumba, included intensive surface survey with surface collections and exca-
vations, along with a detailed ethnohistory of the region. During the early Colonial
period (1521–1620), the major Hispanic cultural introductions consisted of churches,
associated residential complexes, and cemeteries, associated with or separate from
the churches. Aspects of contact, acculturation, demographic collapse, economics,
and the development of ranchos and haciendas were documented. Land tenure and
agricultural production, and the patterns of production, distribution, and consump-
tion of ceramics were also included in the studies, as was the early Colonial produc-
tion of obsidian tools (Borg 1975; Charlton 1972, 1986; Charlton and Fournier G. 1993;
Charlton et al. 2005; Cressey 1974; Otis Charlton and Charlton 2007; Seifert 1977).
In rural Xaltocan, also in the Basin of Mexico, the use of Hispanic ceramics
by some members of the indigenous population may mark status distinctions and
the aspiration to power by people of lesser rank than the elites during the early
Colonial period (Rodríguez-Alegría 2010). The use and production of obsidian
tools was also documented for the post-conquest era as part of the change in labor
and demographic patterns at the settlement (Rodríguez-Alegría 2008).
In a small hamlet with a Franciscan visita, or chapel, located at the obsid-
ian mines of the Sierra de las Navajas, close to Pachuca, Hidalgo (Pastrana and
Fournier G. 1998), obsidian use continued to the seventeenth century although the
form and function of the chipped-stone tool production changed. Massive scrapers
used to process cow hides and to extract agave fibers to produce cord required at
regional silver mines are ubiquitous in the assemblage. Except for the introduc-
tion of plainwares that apparently were produced in the region, no major ceramic
changes occurred in indigenous traditions.
Recent contributions emphasize post-conquest environmental degradation,
changes in resource exploitation, and the introduction of new cultigens and cat-
tle. These investigations address regional environmental history to understand
anthropogenic landscape modifications from prehispanic to Republican times,
based on demographic, geographical, and ethnoarchaeological studies in the
Basin of Mexico (Parsons 2006), the Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán (Fisher 2005;
Pollard 2005), and the Mezquital Valley, Hidalgo (Fournier G. 2007; Hunter 2009).
In the latter region, an integrated study of the construction of indigenous iden-
tity and resistance attests to the impact of Colonial conquest and domination on
the lives of the Otomí people, through consideration of the economic emphasis

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historical archaeology 921

on agave exploitation. Included are the effects of intrusive ideological and eco-
nomic systems marked by family chapels and oratories, ranchos, and haciendas
(Charlton and Fournier G. 1993; Fournier G. 2007; Fournier G. and Mondragón
2003; Mondragón et al. 1997).
In an area composed of zones of northwest Puebla, southern Hidalgo, east-
ern Mexico, and most of Tlaxcala, surveys provided information on post-conquest
settlement patterns and ceramic diversity and consumption up to the twentieth
century (Müller 1981).
The examination of changes in economic inequality and land-tenure patterns,
both within and among indigenous communities during the Colonial period, has
been addressed for the Soconusco region in Chiapas (Gasco 2005).
The impact of Colonial aggregation systems on pre-conquest populations and
on settlement patterns has also been discussed in detail for the Tehuantepec region
in Oaxaca (Zeitlin 2005). Studies of population history, political economy, the eco-
logical consequences of Colonial rule, and conflicts between indigenous Tarascan
communities and European settlers in the Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, illustrate
the long-term effects of the Spanish intrusion in the region (Pollard 2005).
Recently, new research programs have been implemented in northwestern
Mesoamerica. In Nayarit, the architectural and urban development of the port of
San Blas, a major trading post connecting the Pacific Coast of New Spain with the
mission sites in the Californias, was studied. Ongoing surveys, both in San Blas and
in the earlier port established nearby at the Matanchel Bay, provide additional infor-
mation about the daily life of both civilians and military inhabitants and insights
into the transpacific trade network with Asia (Fournier G. and Bracamontes 2010).
In Sinaloa de Leiva, the Jesuit College of San Felipe and Santiago was recently
excavated, uncovering the foundations of the old church (Santos Ramírez 2004),
and different Jesuit mission sites have been surveyed as well. In northern Sinaloa,
the former presidio settlement of El Fuerte and neighboring towns are under
study (Carpenter Slavens and Sánchez Miranda 2007). Preliminary results provide
information about the shift from prehispanic to historic indigenous ceramic tradi-
tions and about the way of life of the Mayo-Cahita native communities during the
Colonial and Republican periods.
The investigation of ranchos and haciendas is attracting historical archaeologists
after the first study in the Otumba area (Jones 1981), with isolated examples in Guerrero
(Murrieta Flores 2008), the Mezquital Valley (Fournier G. and Mondragón 2003), and
a major project in San Miguel Acocotla, Puebla (Juli 2003; Newman 2010) focusing on
ethnic and class identity, the daily life of workers, and economic activities.

Ceramics
Mexican historical archaeology includes the study of ceramic artifacts not only for
the development of sequences and the relative dating of archaeological sites and
deposits, but also for indicating continuities and changes in cultural and social

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922 the spanish conquest

boundaries both within and between the Spanish and Indian-mestizo communi-
ties over time.
Multiple studies have addressed continuities, innovation, deterioration, and
changes in production, styles, and exchange of indigenous ceramics, to investigate
the impact of the Spanish conquest on Late Postclassic wares, craft production, and
the market economy. Little is known about these processes except for at locations
in the Basin of Mexico (Charlton and Fournier G. 1993, 2011; Charlton et al. 2007;
Charlton et al. 2005), the Puebla-Tlaxcala area (Müller 1981), and the Tehuantepec
region (Zeitlin 2005). These changes have been documented in detail on decorated
vessels, plainwares (Figure 70.3), and figurines (Otis Charlton and Charlton 2007).
Research results attest to the continuation and florescence of some indigenous
ceramic wares while others show deterioration or disappearance. Different tech-
nological, stylistic, and formal modifications in the native traditions, including
the adoption of lead glazing for the surface finish and updraft kilns, have been
studied.
Shifts in market systems and economics have been explored by means of INAA
(instrumental neutron activation analyses) (e.g., Charlton et al. 2005; Nichols et al.
2002). The variations in the archaeological record indicate an urban-rural dichot-
omy associated with an elite-commoner dichotomy, resulting in earlier and stron-
ger acculturative processes in the cities and among the elites.

0 1 2 3 4 5 cm 0 1 2 3 4 5 cm

0 1 2 3 4 5 cm 0 1 2 3 4 5 cm

Figure 70.3 Early Colonial redware vessels from Mexico City.

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historical archaeology 923

European, European-style, and Asian pottery and chinaware were used as

status symbols for visible display by members of Colonial and Republican soci-
ety. These included lead-glazed ceramics, tin-opacified pottery, or majolica either
imported or produced in Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca; Chinese or French por-
celains; and European creamwares, pearlwares, and whitewares mostly produced
in England but also emulated in Mexico (e.g., Blackman et al. 2006; Borg 1975;
Charlton et al. 2007; Fournier G. 1990; Fournier G. et al. 2009; Gómez Serafín and
Fernández Dávila 2007; Lister and Lister 1982; Müller 1981; Seifert 1977).
Chinese porcelains dating to the Colonial period and European wares that
mostly date from the late eighteenth century to the nineteenth century have been
found to be the best chronological indicators. Usually these wares represent only
a small percentage of recovered artifacts at historic sites. Imported ceramics evi-
dence consumer behavior, in that they were a means of communicating the social
status, wealth, and ethnicity of those who could afford these commodities (e.g.,
Borg 1975; Fournier G. 1990).
Lead-glazed earthenwares are ubiquitous in urban and rural historical archae-
ology sites. They exhibit a wide variety of wheel and mold-made forms, with lim-
ited changes in style through time except for those dating to the early Colonial
period in the Basin of Mexico (Charlton et al. 2007; Sodi 1994). The manufacture
of these wares has been attributed to multiple production centers and workshops
in Mesoamerica from which they were distributed regionally (e.g., Fournier G. and
Blackman 2008; Gómez Serafín and Fernández Dávila 2007).
Diagnostic decorated pottery such as majolica has attracted much interest and
attention as a way to document chronology through changes in style and typologi-
cal distinctions over time, starting with Goggin’s seminal research on tin-opacified
lead-glazed ceramics in the New World for types of the sixteenth to the nineteenth
centuries (Goggin 1968; Lister and Lister 1982; Seifert 1977). A number of studies
focus on the development of the majolica industry in Mexico City (e.g., Fournier
G. et al. 2009; Gómez et al. 2001), Puebla (Lister and Lister 1984), Sayula, Jalisco
(López Cervantes 1985), Oaxaca (Gómez Serafín and Fernández Dávila 2007), and
Guanajuato (Cohen-Williams 1992).
As a result of analyses of numerous collections of majolica from urban cen-
ters, specifically Mexico City (Charlton and Fournier G. 1993; Lister and Lister
1982), Cuernavaca (Fournier G. and Charlton 2011), Puebla (Reynoso Ramos 2004),
and Oaxaca (Gómez Serafín and Fernández Dávila 2007), it has become clear that
while the cities possess a wide range of majolicas in terms of origins, types, and
qualities, the rural areas possess few types in limited quantities and not always of
the highest quality.
The effects of colonial rule, economics, and power structures on majolicas and
glazed wares have been explored through chemical characterization of ceramic
pastes by means of INAA and other analytical techniques, providing insights into
production, commercialization, and the trade of pottery in different regions and
periods (e.g., Blackman et al. 2006; Charlton et al. 2007; Fournier G. and Blackman
2008; Fournier G. et al. 2007, 2009; Nichols et al. 2002). New ethnoarchaeological

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924 the spanish conquest

and compositional studies about Tarascan-produced Colonial pseudo majolicas

in the Pátzcuaro Basin have illustrated the adoption of European technological
traditions among indigenous potters, influenced by the demand of the colonizers’
markets and the popularity of these wares among urban and rural consumers of
the viceroyalty (Fournier G. et al. 2007).
Other wares and particular vessel shapes have also been investigated, including
Spanish olive jars used to ship foods across the Atlantic (Goggin 1960) and glazed
chandeliers from Mexico City (López Palacios 1998). Slipped coarse brown páteras
or lebrillos (bowls) that occur in Mexico City from about 1600–1650 to ca. 1850, and
possibly employed as bowls for drinking pulque or for serving meals at hospitals
(e.g., Lugo Ramírez 2006; Sánchez 1998), are present only from about 1621 to 1820
in rural areas of the Basin of Mexico. Fine burnished ceramics produced from the
seventeenth century to the present in Tonalá, near Guadalajara, Jalisco, occur in
low percentages in urban centers and rural areas of Mesoamerica (Charlton and
Reiff Katz 1979; Gómez Serafín and Fernández Dávila 2007).

Minor Topics
Little research has been conducted on the archaeology of the African diaspora
in central and western Mesoamerica (e.g., Gallaga Murrieta 2010). Occasionally,
Colonial burials such as some excavated in Mexico City (Meza and Báez 1994)
include Afro-American individuals, as do some in Oaxaca at a sugar plantation
cemetery for African slaves (Meza 2003).
Archaeologically recovered faunal and paleoethnobotanical data attest to the
post-conquest prevalence of indigenous dietary customs and to the incorporation
of European-introduced species, resulting in hybrid culinary traditions (Guzmán
and Polaco 2003; Montúfar 1998, 2003; Newman 2010; Reynoso Ramos 2004;
Valentín Maldonado 2003).
Osteological and bioarchaeological analyses, mostly in the Basin of Mexico
and in Oaxaca, were usually carried out independently from archaeological stud-
ies. Such analyses bear witness to burial methods, general health conditions, life
expectancy, morbidity, nutritional deficiencies, and the effects of toxic agents
such as lead on individuals (e.g., Mansilla et al. 2000; Mansilla and Pijoan 1995;
Meza 2003; Meza and Báez 1994; Moncada González and Mansilla 2005; Moncada
González et al. 2006).
New projects are being developed with interdisciplinary approaches, advanced
geophysical techniques are being used to evaluate the feasibility of potential archae-
ological excavations, and previous interpretations about social dynamics and con-
sumer behavior are put to the test by taking into account the formation processes
of the archaeological record (e.g., Ponce et al. 2004; Gómez Goyzueta 2007).

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historical archaeology 925

There is little systematic investigation of the physical remains of the industrial

past in Mexico. Historians and architects alike tend to label some of their stud-
ies as “industrial archaeology,” and they include mining centers as part of their
research in surveys (Niccolai and Morales 2003; Oviedo 1998). Theoretical and
methodological issues contributing to the development of industrial archaeology
have been proposed (Litvak King and Rodríguez 2003) but little progress has been
made under these considerations. Minor salvage projects in Mexico City at a paper
factory (Moreno Cabrera et al. 1997), and other studies addressing leather tanner-
ies and bottled soda factories in Puebla (Allende Carrera 2007; Reynoso Ramos
2005), are strictly industrial archaeology, contributing to the historical reconstruc-
tion of production processes and facilities through the artifacts associated with the
end products.

Final Considerations
Starting in the late 1960s, historical archaeology in Mexico has been undertaken
during a series of important research projects at sites all over Mesoamerica, in
many instances with the integration of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and his-
torical data into the analyses of the Colonial and Republican past, from the six-
teenth century to the present day. This research strategy is well positioned and
has generated a mass of significant publications as well as enormous databases in
unpublished technical reports and theses (on file at the archaeology archives of the
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), along with catalogues of architec-
tural features and artifacts found at excavation sites. It contributes constantly to
the extension and deepening of our understanding of past social life. Case stud-
ies have looked at material culture (ceramics, compositional analyses, lithics, and
architecture), ethnicity and social identity, power, consumerism, subsistence, zoo-
archaeology, bioarchaeology, urbanization, ruralization, settlement patterns, land-
tenure systems, the long-term impact of European culture on indigenous peoples,
further developments among mestizo communities, and ecology.
Although the field of historical archaeology has matured, it should still be
regarded as an expanding field of inquiry that primarily engages with salvage
archaeology and architectural restoration of historical monuments in Mexican
urban centers. Historical archaeology in Mesoamerica provides insights into the
daily lives of the conquerors and the conquered and their descendants, with or
without the aid of textual evidence. Documentary resources are only a single line
of evidence to infer processes of social change during the post-conquest centuries
in Mesoamerica. Historical archaeology provides the means to expand our under-
standing of such processes based on material correlates, considering Colonial and
post-independence Mexico in the global context of the modern world system.

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926 the spanish conquest

In any case, historical and archaeological datasets reflect different aspects

of “reality” in different ways. Although they are complementary in many ways,
archaeological data do more than simply support constructs based on historical
data. Archaeological datasets propose one “reality” while historical datasets pres-
ent another.
In the future, historical archaeology research projects with a regional scope
and in rural settings in Mesoamerica will provide opportunities for more complete
investigations that often are not feasible in salvage or rescue operations in urban
archaeology. The richness of the archaeological record, historical documentation,
and the presence of the descendants of both indigenous and intrusive societies in
many instances mean that an enhanced study of social and cultural practices can
be carried out within many differing contexts.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thomas H. Charlton and I discussed the general sketch of this contribution and
started working on a rough draft of this chapter prior to his untimely death in June
2010. Unfortunately, he did not see the final product. As my mentor and long-time
friend, I dedicate this contribution to his memory. We thank Patricia Castillo Peña,
the director of the “Salvamento Arqueológico Gaseoducto Tuxpan-Atotonilco de
Tula” project, for her invitation to visit the excavations at Santa Inés, Hidalgo, and
to carry out preliminary studies of the archaeological collections. Cynthia Otis
Charlton created the map included in this chapter.

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