En Los Margenes de Monte Alban

At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley,
Oaxaca, Mexico
Gary M. Feinman; Linda M. Nicholas
Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 1, No. 3. (Sep., 1990), pp. 216-246.
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AT THE MARGINS OF THE MONTE ALBAN STATE:
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY,
OAXACA, MEXICO
Gary M. Feinman and Linda M. Nicholas
A recent systematic archaeological survey in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca. Mexico, enables us to examine long-
term settlement-pattern changes in this small reglon and its shifting Prehispanic relation with the larger, aa'jacent
Valley of Oaxaca. Throughout the sequence, Ejutla was settled less densely than Oaxaca, though the degree of
difference varied through time. Ejutla was not a simple microcosm of Oaxaca; rather the former region shifted
.from a sparsely inhabited frontier to a more-dependent periphery that maintained d~fferentdegrees of autonomy
over time. Through a multiscalar examination of this contiguous area larger than a single valley, new perspectives
are gained concerning political and economic relations and processes at the macroregional scale for the southern
highlands of ancient Mesoamerica.
I n reciente reconocimiento arqueoldgico sisterncitico del522 km2 en el Valle de Ejutla, Oaxaca. Mkxico, nos
permite examinar 10s cambios de patrones de aa,ntamiento a largo plazo en esta pequetia regidn y, tambikn, su
cambiante relacidn prehisprinica con el adyacente Valle de Oaxaca, un valle mcis grande donde ya se llevd a cabo
un reconocimiento regional comparable. Por toda la secuencia prehisprinica, Ejutla fue habitado menos densa-
mente que Oaxaca, aunque la diferencia en densidad entre las dos regiones varid a travks del tiempo.
Se usan /as diferencias en la distribucidn de artefactos para ilustrar la variabilidad entre /as dos regiones.
Basado en 10s resultados de nuestro anrilisis, Ejutla no era simplemente un microcosmos de Oaxaca; mris bien
Ejutla cambid de una frontera habitada con poca densidad (antes del periodo Formativo Terminal) a una periferia
mds dependiente que mantuvo grados diferentes de autonomia a travb del tiempo. Durante /asfuses Monte Albrin
II J IIIA, la regidn de Ejutla fue incorporada en la constitucidn politica de Monte Albrin. Despuks del caida de
Monte Albrin, Ejutla fue mris autdnomo politicamente, per0 puede haber quedado como un poco levemente
dependiente econdmicamente del valle mris grande a1 norte.
A travks de un examen a varias escalas de este cirea contigua que es mris grande que un solo valle, se ganaron
perspectivas nuevas tocantes a /as relaciones y 10s procesos politicos y econdmicos a escala macroregional para
10s altos suretios de la Mesoamkrica antigua. En el curso de la discusidn damos knfasis a la contribucidn
indespensable de la investigacidn regional del patrtin de asentamientos a1 conocimiento del mundo mesoamericano
prehispcinico.
A clear trend in human history has been the formation and integration of political and economic
institutions of ever-increasing size (Carneiro 1978; Taagepera 1978). While this growth process has
not been linear (nor should it be thought of as inevitable), it has been described aptly as "funnel-
like" with the end product being a smaller number of much bigger, more complex social units
(Cohen 1978:142). Since the areal size and demographic scale of specific social entities may vary
greatly through time, it is not surprising that Eisenstadt (1968:23 1) recognized that in social evolution
"the processes of change and of differentiation, on the one hand, and the development of different
integrative responses to them, on the other, d o not take place within single, closed societies." This
larger-scale perspective on long-term social change has been expanded and refined by a number of
social theorists (e.g., Braudel 1972; Wallerstein 1974; Wolf 1982) who have adopted macroregional
or "global" perspectives. Much of this analysis has focused on the contemporary "world" and its
genesis (Frank 1979; Wallerstein 1980); however, others have applied similar frameworks in the
Gary ,M. Feinman and Linda M. :Vicholas. Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
W153706
Latin American Antiquity, 1 (3), 1990, pp. 2 16-246.

Copyright O 1990 by the Society for American Archaeology
[Feinman and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA 217
investigation of more ancient and nonwestern social systems (Abu-Lughod 1989; Chase-Dunn 1988;
Kohl 1987; Schneider 1977).
Although the above studies are recognized for their broad spatial perspective, most, if not all of
them, also examine social, political, and economic events and processes at smaller scales (e.g.,
regions, market systems, nation-states, communities, estates, households, individuals). The dynamic
interplay between these different units constitutes a central theme of these works. As Smith (1983:
345) has noted, "to explain the situation of any place requires us to look at numerous factors, some
global and some local, all of which can affect the outcome in distinctive ways." In a similar vein,
Adams (1977:274) recognized that "manipulation and control of the spatial and temporal framework
is, after all, fundamental to the most elementary progress in reconstructing the past from its ar-
chaeological vestiges."
For scholars studying the ancient civilizations of highland Mesoamerica, the last decades have
brought significant advances in the directions outlined by Adams. In The Early Mesoamerican
Village, Flannery (1976) pioneered a multiscale framework for the investigation of pre-Monte Alban
villages in Oaxaca. At the same time, the implementation of extensive pedestrian surveys provided
a new, broader-scale perspective on long-term settlement-pattern change in more than a half-dozen
regions (e.g., Blanton et al. 1982; Byland 1980; Hirth 1980; Kowalewski et al. 1989; MacNeish et
al. 1975; Redmond 1983; Sanders et al. 1979; Spores 1972). Nevertheless, the collection of increas-
ingly systematic archaeological information at the regional scale coincided with an ironic trend, the
decreasing attention given to macroregional forces and factors in accounting for change (for an early
reaction to this narrow interpretive focus see Price [1977]). Although, in part, it was a necessary
response to the vague and trait-based diffusionist position (see Blanton and Feinman 1984), the
focus on Prehispanic regional systems as rather closed, self-contained entities also reflected the
environmentalist emphasis (e.g., Logan and Sanders 1976) of the early "New Archaeology."
In ancient mesoamerican studies, the 1980s have witnessed an increasing sophistication and
concern with the importance of trade, conflict, and alliance at the macroregional scale (e.g., Hirth
1980; Spencer 1982). Yet, such studies have tended to examine the interplay between the Prehispanic
inhabitants of noncontiguous regions (generally a large core and a smaller periphery), separated by
unstudied or uninhabited zones. Hence, having other research goals, these projects were not intended
nor designed to collect information on shifting frontier and boundary relations between the inhab-
itants of adjacent regions over time.
This paper examines Prehispanic settlement patterns in the Ejutla Valley, a region of gently rolling
terrain that surrounds the Rio Ejutla in the southern highlands of Mexico (Figure 1). In 1984-1985,
we implemented a systematic regional survey in this 522 km2 area that lies directly south of the
southern survey limit of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project (Blanton 1978; Blanton
et al. 1982; Kowalewski et al. 1989). The large Prehispanic site that lies beneath the contemporary
district head town of Ejutla has been known since the turn of the century (Diguet 1905). More
recently, Bernal(1965) recorded the site in his regional reconnaissance of the Oaxaca Valley system.
Nevertheless, few details about the archaeology of the Ejutla town site or its immediate surroundings
have been published previously (see Feinman [I9851 and Feinman and Nicholas [I 9881 for prelim-
inary reports). Obviously, given that our project is still on-going, our findings must be viewed as
preliminary.
A specific aim of the Ejutla research, which extended the 2,150 km2 Oaxaca coverage area, was
to examine shifting population patterns at the southern margins of this larger valley system. We
endeavored to learn whether or not the Ejutla region was incorporated into the polity that was
centered at the Prehispanic urban center of Monte Alban and, if so, when? Furthermore, how (if at
all) did the fall of Monte Alban (A.D. 600-700) affect settlement patterns in this region situated
40-75 km south of the ancient center?
While a central aim of the Ejutla research was to examine these shifting boundary relations, a
secondary purpose was to compare Prehispanic settlement patterns in these two adjacent (Oaxaca
and Ejutla) highland regions. How did the Prehispanic occupation of narrow, hilly, relatively dry
Ejutla compare with the pattern of habitation in the broader, flatter, somewhat moister valley to
the north (Carta de Climas 1970)? T o address both sets of issues, the scales of analysis have been
LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 1, No. 3, 1990
modified so that for the latter questions we compare and contrast the Ejutla and Oaxaca survey
regions, while for the former (boundary relations) we examine the area as one large, contiguous
block. In the process, we provide descriptive findings from the Ejutla Valley Settlement Pattern
Project.
By examining these two contiguous survey regions over time, we address the more general issues
raised by Cohen (1978: 142). How did the scale of these southern highlands political and economic
networks increase or decrease over time? We also provide a new perspective on issues raised by
Blanton and Feinman (1 984) (see also Drennan 1984; Pailes and Whitecotton 1979) concerning the
interconnection of ancient Mesoamerica at a scale larger than the single polity or region.
PREHISPANIC SETTLEMENT IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY

Project Methods
To implement a controlled broad-scale comparison between a Prehispanic core (the Valley of
Oaxaca) and its southern margin (the Ejutla Valley), the regional study of Ejutla employed systematic,
field-by-field pedestrian-survey procedures that were comparable to the methods used by the Valley
Feinman and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA
cMESOAMERICA
LATE
POSTCLASSIC
VALLEY OF OAXACA
MONTE ALBAN V MONTE ALBAN V
EARLY
POSTCLASSIC MONTE ALBAN I V
MONTE ALBAN
LATE CLASSIC I MONTEALBAN I I B I IIIB-IV
1
EARLY CLASSIC I MONTE ALBAN lllA 1 MONTE ALBAN l l l A 1
A.D.
0 TERMINAL MONTE ALBAN I I MONTE ALBAN II
B.C. FORMATIVE
--
MONTE ALBAN LATE I ( MONTE ALBAN LATE I

LATE FORMATIVE
MONTE ALBAN 1 MONTE ALBAN
1 EARLY I I EARLY I I
I ROSARIO 1
MIDDLE
FORMATIVE I GUADALUPE
ROSARIO
1OOC SAN JOSE

EARLY
EARLY FORMATIVE
FORMATIVE
TIERRAS LARGAS
1500'
Figure 2. Chronological sequences for highland Mesoamerica, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Ejutla Valley.
of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project (Blanton et al. 1982:l-12; Feinman et al. 1985:334-337;
Kowalewski et al. 1989:24-30). These field procedures, for the most part developed in the Basin of
Mexico (Sanders et al. 1979: 1-79) and employed in more than a half-dozen regions of the mesoameri-
can highlands, required that crews check for archaeological remains on the ground surface of the
entire research area, including every hilltop, street, ridge, field, and riverbank. The crews, composed
of 3 4 people, were guided by 1:20,000 aerial photograph mosaics that were enlarged to a scale of
1:5,000. Each crew systematically traversed the area depicted on a specific photograph before
proceeding to the terrain depicted on another. By so doing, a contiguous survey area eventually was
covered that joined the Valley of Oaxaca survey region with the northern limit of Markman's (198 1)
survey transect through the Miahuatlan Valley.
Whenever Prehispanic artifacts were encountered, crews noted their nature, frequency, and lo-
cation. At each site pottery was examined to date the surface remains to one or more of the eight
Prehispanic phases that could be distinguished in Ejutla (Figure 2) and to delimit the extent of the
remains pertaining to each phase. In total, 141 ceramic collections were made during the Ejutla
220 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 1, No. 3, 1990
survey to check field assessments of pottery. While surveying, crews recorded the presence of many
artifact classes, including obsidian, ceramic kiln wasters, ground-stone implements, and spindle
whorls. All visible features (such as mounds, plazas, house foundations, terraces, and walls) were
measured, mapped, and interpreted. At every site, modern patterns of land use, erosional and
depositional conditions, and a set of environmental variables (e.g., topography, distance to water,
soil color, and texture) were recorded. In our field laboratory in Ejutla, all data were organized
systematically by site. Each air photograph was traced, and all site boundaries (by phase) and
architectural drawings were checked. Subsequently, at the University of Wisconsin, a topograph-
ic base map was prepared and all recorded sites were placed on this map. With this as a base,
phase-by-phase settlement maps were made by tracing the components for each phase on separate
maps. A compensating polar planimeter was used to measure the size of all components.
The Ejutla Valley, like the Valley of Oaxaca, is almost an ideal area for surface survey. Few areas
are covered by dense vegetation, so surface artifactual material rarely was obscured. Most of the
land, even high ridgetops and gently graded slopes in the oak zone, has been cleared in the recent
past so archaeological debris is visible on the surface where it can be spotted by survey crews. In
the alluvial and piedmont zones, nonmechanized farming practices have been employed for mil-
lennia, bringing ancient artifacts to the surface. Because tractors and other heavy farm equipment
remain rare, relatively few sites have been destroyed completely. There are no large cities in the
region, so modern urbanization is not the problem for survey in Ejutla that it is in Mexico's central
highlands. In fact, the region's largest contemporary settlement (Ejutla) is built directly above the
largest ancient settlement in the study region. Yet, by carefully studying portions of the ancient site
that extend into fields beyond the modem town and by implementing a houselot-by-houselot survey
in certain key parts of the contemporary community, we have been able to piece together a prelim-
inary picture of this important site.
The field procedures selected not only have the advantage of comparability (with areas surveyed
previously by archaeologists), but they yield information on a large corpus of sites across a broad
region, at a reasonable cost in money and time. Given the ever-present limits in research funding,
we suggest that these field procedures provide, at least for the highlands of Mesoamerica, the most
systematic means available for producing an inventory of the sizes and distributions of archaeological
sites at a spatial scale sufficient to examine long-term change. Furthermore, with the data collected
we can examine not only changes in the numbers, sizes, and distributions of ancient occupations
in relation to environmental conditions, but we also can examine shifts in the spatial patterning of
settlements. Evaluation of the latter is necessary for reconstructing boundary/frontier relations as
well as for documenting changes in the organization of social, political, and economic networks
over broad temporal and spatial scales.
We employed the basic procedures for estimating ancient populations that were developed by
Sanders (1965) and Parsons (197 1) for the settlement survey of the Basin of Mexico and that were
employed by the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project. As in those studies, we proceeded on
the assumption that a general relation exists between the areal extent of a settlement and the
population of that locality (e.g., Ogrosky 1975). Consequently for Ejutla, as in the Valley of Oaxaca,
most settlements were calculated as having had 10-25 people per hectare of occupied area. Although
the settlement population estimates are expressed as ranges, for ease of presentation and comparison
we refer here to the mean values.
The Ejutla and Oaxaca Survey Regions

The Oaxaca and Ejutla valleys lie in Mexico's southern highlands, a patchy environment composed
of agriculturally forbidding steep slopes interspersed by a series of alluvial basins. The Valley of
Oaxaca (the upper basin of the Rio Atoyac) contains the largest expanse of flat farmable land in the
southern highlands. The southern boundary of the Rio Atoyac's upper basin gently divides the
Valley of Oaxaca from the Ejutla Valley (Welte 1973). The latter region is not only smaller, but it
contains proportionally less prime imgable land than the former. Furthermore, whereas roughly
only 35 percent of the Valley of Oaxaca lies outside the 700 mm isohyet, more than 90 percent of
Table 1 . Population Densities (per km2) in Ejutla and Oaxaca.
Valley of Oaxaca Subregions

North South Western Eastern
Valle Valle Tlaco- Tlaco-
Phase Ejutla Oaxaca Etla Central Grande Grande lula lula
Tierras Largas
San Jose
Guadalupe
Rosario
Monte Alban Early I
Monte Alban Late I
Monte Alban I1
Monte Alban IIIA
Monte Alban IIIB
Monte Alban IV
Monte Alban V
the Ejutla Valley receives less than this critical per annum quantity of average precipitation desirable
for the reliable rainfall farming of maize.
The relative agricultural marginality of Ejutla might have contributed to the region's lower esti-
mated demographic densities throughout the Prehispanic period compared to the Valley of Oaxaca
(Table 1). Several cumulative measures provide a comparative perspective for the entire Prehispanic
era. The overall density of archaeological localities or sites (irrespective of size, phase, or number
of occupations) in the Ejutla Valley is just over .8/km2, as compared with 1.25/km2in Oaxaca. The
difference in the density of components (phase-specific occupations) is even greater (Table 2).
Occupational continuity also was less in the smaller region. Sites in the Ejutla Valley average 1.63
components/site, while the comparable ratio for the Valley of Oaxaca is 2.35 components/site. Even
if the Tierras Largas, Guadalupe, and Monte Alban IIIB phase components (the three temporal
units not distinguishable in Ejutla) were eliminated from the latter calculation, Valley of Oaxaca
localities still would average more than two components/site. Despite these general differences, the
extent of the variation in density between the two regions was not constant over time. During the
Early and Middle Formative periods, the regions differed by an order of magnitude; however, it
was only by a factor of two late in the sequence (in Monte Alban IIIA and V).
A few general measures also point to organizational differences between the two regions. Compared
to Oaxaca, the Ejutla Valley has many fewer mounds (the ruins of Prehispanic civic-ceremonial
structures). In Ejutla, .45 mounds were recorded per km2, while more than twice that density was
noted for Oaxaca (Blanton 1989:409). Although the difference in the average number of mounds
per site was less marked, it still was considerable. These contrasts hold even when the numerous
buildings and platforms at urban Monte Alban are excluded from the Oaxaca sample.
Another indicator of Oaxaca's political centrality is the relative endurance of its larger settlements
compared to Ejutla. Interestingly, although sites in Oaxaca average more components or occupations,
the number of single-component sites is roughly comparable (73-75 percent). Thus each area had
approximately the same proportion of sites that were inhabited in only one phase. Consequently,
the greater occupational continuity in the larger region (Oaxaca) almost entirely stems from the
remaining 25-27 percent of the sites. In both areas, many of these remaining localities (694 in
Oaxaca and 113 in Ejutla) are larger sites, often with monumental construction. The occupational
histories of these multicomponent localities therefore provide a rough measure of the persistence
of centers in the two regions. While in Ejutla these localities averaged 3.37 components/site, their
counterparts in Oaxaca were occupied in almost twice as many phases (6.26 components/site). The
Prehispanic population of Ejutla was not only less dense, as it remains today, but its centers of
demographic and political power were shorter-lived than in Oaxaca.
Yet, as indicated by the changing density of sites in the two regions over time, Ejutla was not a
Table 2. Component Density (per km2) by Phase for Ejutla and

Oaxaca.
Phase Eiutla Oaxaca

Tierras Largas
San Jose
Guadalupe
Rosario
Monte Alban Early I
Monte Alban Late I
Monte Alban I1
Monte Alban IIIA
Monte Alban IIIB
Monte Alban IV
Monte Alban V
simple microcosm of the larger valley to the north. On the basis of surface findings, certain utilitarian
craft activities (e.g., pottery production) were underrepresented in Ejutla compared to Oaxaca (rel-
ative to the sizes and numbers of settlements in the two regions) (Feinman 1989), while other
economic activities (e.g., shellworking) seem to be proportionally abundant in Ejutla. Furthermore,
the nature of the interconnections between Oaxaca and Ejutla was not static, shifting markedly
during the Prehispanic era. The remainder of this discussion examines this changing relation over
roughly 3,000 years, from the advent of villages (ca. 1500 B.C.) to the Spanish Conquest. Because
the central focus of this paper is the relation between the Monte Alban state and its hinterland, less
analytical emphasis is given here to the Postclassic period, which follows the center's collapse, than
to the earlier Monte Alban phases (Early I-IIIA) when Monte Alban dominated the Oaxaca land-
scape.
A DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE O N INTERREGIONAL INTERACTION:

OAXACA AND EJUTLA
In this examination of a Prehispanic social system at a large scale, it is not our aim to propose
yet another new interpretive framework or supplement the burgeoning number of available terms
that have been used to describe long-distance relations between regions or polities. Rather, in
discussing Ejutla and the Valley of Oaxaca, we make use of a rather simple theoretical distinction
drawn by Strassoldo (1980) that contrasts a frontier with a periphery. "Frontiers" are viewed as
open, undeveloped, virgin areas that undergo colonization and growth (see also Lerner 1984).
Alternatively, "peripheries" are underdeveloped and dependent domains that are removed from
core centers, but perhaps linked to them through specific channels. In this analysis, we also do not
wish to convey the impression that our study area is sufficiently large to encompass a complete
social system for the entire period under discussion. While the composite Oaxaca-Ejutla survey
area may bound the polity centered at ancient Monte Alban during certain phases, it does not at
other times.
Early Sedentary Communities in Ejutla

The earliest ceramic materials recovered by the Ejutla Valley Settlement Pattern Project resemble
Valley of Oaxaca diagnostic wares of the San Jose phase (and possibly the Tierras Largas phase).
Nevertheless, because our sample of these ceramics is small, we cautiously have dated sites with
those varieties to the Early Formative period. Early Formative pottery has been found at only three
small sites in the study region. At two of these settlements, as well as at two other sites, we encountered
ceramics diagnostic of the subsequent Rosario phase (see Figure 2). Clearly, the occupational density
in the Ejutla region was sparse compared to the Valley of Oaxaca, where 26 Tierras Largas phase,
41 San Jose phase, and 85 Rosario phase sites were recorded by the project (Kowalewski et al.
Fejnman and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA
KEY SITES MENTIONED

IN TEXT
Figure 3. Oaxaca and Ejutla survey area subregions and sites mentioned in text.
1989). Yet, the pattern of settlement during the Early Formative period in Ejutla was not markedly
different from that found in the two Valley of Oaxaca subregions (eastern Tlacolula and the southern
Valle Grande) farthest from San Jose Mogote-the Valley of Oaxaca's largest and most important
site at that time (see Flannery and Marcus 1983:Chapter 3) (Figure 3). At present, no settlements
predating Monte Alban I have been recorded in the Miahuatlan Valley directly to the south of Ejutla
(Markman 198 1).
Each of the Early Formative Ejutla settlements was located near the Rio Atoyac in the western
half of the Ejutla survey region (Figure 4). Two of these (the two localities at which occupation
continued into the Rosario phase) were situated near the northern boundary of the Ejutla region.
Thus, the earliest communities in Ejutla may have been a southern frontier extension (down the
Atoyac) from the Valley of Oaxaca. The two Early Formative Ejutla sites in the north lie roughly
10 km south of a small cluster of contemporaneous San Jose phase settlements near Santa Ana
Tlapacoyan in the Valley of Oaxaca. While all three of the Ejutla sites are situated adjacent to
relatively good farmland, the absence of early occupation near the much larger patches of alluvial
terrain near the Rio Ejutla (and to the south in Miahuatlan) seems to support the view that these
early settlements in the Ejutla region were colonized by people with ties to the north (or at least
that proximity to contemporaneous settlement in the Valley of Oaxaca was a factor in the location
of communities in Ejutla).
In the Rosario phase, the occupation of the Ejutla region changed little (with all four small
occupations concentrated in the north). In contrast, the population (and the number of sites) in the
southern Valle Grande and eastern Tlacolula subregions increased as modest centers grew and new
Figure 4. Pre-Monte Alban settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.

Feinman and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA 225
hamlets were occupied in both areas (see Kowalewski et al. 1989:69-83). In the Rosario phase, the
population density of the Ejutla region (.08 people per km2) was less than 25 percent of that of
eastern Tlacolula, the most sparsely inhabited subregion in the Valley of Oaxaca at this time
(Feinman and Nicholas 1987b). Given the apparently low density of habitation in the entire valley
system (with large tracts of alluvial land uninhabited in adjacent Ejutla and Miahuatlan), it is hard
to imagine that population pressure on land or food supplies was a terribly important "prime mover"
in the establishment of Monte Alban in the subsequent phase (Monte Alban Early I) (see also
Feinman and Nicholas 1987a). A broader perspective on the dynamics that were responsible for
the build-up of population (though still at low densities) in the Etla subregion (around San Jose
Mogote) and in the central area (near Monte Alban in Monte Alban Early I), while Ejutla and
Miahuatlan remained so empty, clearly would enhance our understanding of this significant episode
of transition.
The Foundation and Early Growth of Monte Alban

In the Valley of Oaxaca, Monte Alban Early I was marked by the establishment of Monte Alban,
the hilltop center, as well as the rapid growth of population in rural settlements immediately around
the site. For the Valley of Oaxaca as a whole, the rate of demographic increase was rapid (almost
1.4 percent per annum), and centers were founded throughout the region (Feinman et al. 1985;
Kowalewski et al. 1989:85-111). Twenty-two Early I settlements in the Valley of Oaxaca are each
estimated to have had at least 100 inhabitants.
At this time, the development of a settlement hierarchy is most evident toward the center of the
Oaxaca region and in Etla, where most of the larger sites are situated. Throughout the region,
population dropped off markedly 30-40 km from Monte Alban (Figure 5; Kowalewski et al. 1989:
109). In both the Valle Grande and Tlacolula, larger settlements were clustered toward the center
of those arms (Kowalewski et al. 1989:103). At the edge of the Oaxaca survey region, in eastern
Tlacolula and the southern Valle Grande. a series of small, dispersed settlements having from two
to seven mounds has been recorded (Kowalewski et al. 1989: 106). Unfortunately, the Prehispanic
structures at these sites cannot be dated accurately as most are associated with more than one
ceramic phase. However, their possible role in boundary relations has been suggested (Kowalewski
et al. 1989: 106) on the basis of comparisons to later phases.
This demographic drop-off with increasing distance from Monte Alban is even more evident in
Ejutla (Figure 5). Nevertheless, the rate of Rosario-Early I demographic increase (.75 percent) in
Ejutla was roughly the same as that in the southern Valle Grande and eastern Tlacolula (Feinman
et al. 1985:346). Yet, even these two valley subregions had population densities at least double that
of Ejutla. The largest settlement in the latter region was smaller than 2 ha and is estimated to have
had only 3 1 inhabitants.
Thus, at a time when societal change was affecting many aspects of life in the central part of the
Valley of Oaxaca, considerable (but much less rapid) growth was occurring in Ejutla. The growth
in Ejutla, however, was not accounted for by the creation of a central place, but rather by the
dispersion of small villages and hamlets across the region (Figure 6). For the first time, a number
of communities were situated along the Rio Ejutla. To the south of the Ejutla survey region, the
first recorded settlements in the Miahuatlan Valley pertain to Monte Alban I (Markman 1981). Yet,
it appears that the population of the Ejutla region was not organized hierarchically. Population in
the 21 Early I Ejutla settlements was uniformly small (8-3 1 inhabitants), and although several of
these occupations were associated with mounds, in each case the structures seem more likely to
pertain to later phases, represented by denser concentrations of surface pottery. In a few instances,
collections from mound fill showed the features to date later than Early I. In marked contrast to
the Valley of Oaxaca, no definitive (or even tentative) examples of nonresidential building are known
to predate Monte Alban Late I.
At present, a consideration of the nature and patterns of interaction between Oaxaca and Ejutla
in Monte Alban I must rely principally on pottery. An analysis of ceramic distributions at Early I
sites in Ejutla suggests that the region had less access to a diversity of pottery products than did
LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Val. 1, No. 3, 1990
MONTE KEY:
ALBAN
IPULATION f'OR
ACH GRID Ro w
SJ ROS El LI II lllA IV V > 10000
CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF PHASES

Figure 5. Population in the Valle Grande and Ejutla by grid row from Monte Alban and the center of the
Valley of Oaxaca. (The distance between north-south grid lines is 4 km. The boundary between the Oaxaca and
Ejutla survey regions crosses grid lines N2 and N3. Grid rows are defined by the grid line forming their southern
border; therefore, grid rows N1-N3 include surveyed areas in both the Oaxaca and Ejutla regions.)
sites in Oaxaca. Furthermore, the availability of ceramic goods in Ejutla was in large part a con-
sequence of proximity to the larger region to the north. We examined the total number of different
ceramic varieties (or types) diagnostic to a phase (Feinman 1980:Appendix I; Kowalewslu et al.
1978, 1989:Appendix VI) that were present in the collections made at each site pertaining to that
phase (see Feinman [1980:170-1731 and Kowalewski et al. [1989:94-961 for a brief discussion of
analytical procedures). For example, a total of 85 ceramic types have been defined for Early I. The
17 Early I settlements in Ejutla for which we have ceramic collections average just under 5.5 of
these types per site, a mean figure that is more than three types fewer than found for contemporaneous
Feinrnan and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA 227
sites (excluding Monte Alban) in Oaxaca. Even Early I settlements in the adjacent Valle Grande
average two more types per site than found for undeveloped Ejutla. The distinctive, and often highly
decorated, cream paste pottery, which was produced (and is recorded most abundantly) in the Etla
and central subregions of Oaxaca (Feinman 1980) is very rare in clearcut period I contexts in Ejutla.
When these cremas have been found in such contexts, they occur at both large and small sites,
suggesting that access was not tied strictly to settlement size or importance (Feinman and Nicholas
1990).
The latter finding is borne out preliminarily by the absence of a relation (r = -.04) between
population size and types/site for Early I sites in Ejutla. In all subsequent phases, this relation was
positive (albeit to differing degrees). Yet, in Early I, proximity to Oaxaca was a factor in access.
The five northernmost Ejutla sites, all less than a hectare in extent, had a mean of 10 typedsite,
compared to only 3.5 types at Early I Ejutla settlements farther to the south. While obviously
preliminary and overly reliant on just two classes of information (ceramic distributions and settle-
ment patterns), this analysis of the Ejutla region suggests that it remained a sparsely settled frontier
zone, which lacked any significant civic-ceremonial center, at the time of Monte Alban's foundation.
Interactions between the Valley of Oaxaca and Ejutla Valley seem not to have been handled through
central places, but rather they were negotiated horizontally by households/individuals situated at
small, relatively autonomous communities along this frontier.
In Late I, Monte Alban tripled in size as population continued also to increase rapidly throughout
the Valley of Oaxaca (rate of population growth = .83 percent). Although the valley-wide pattern
of population distribution was similar to what it had been in Early I, several significant changes of
relevance to our discussion of Ejutla also can be noted. As a whole, the Valley of Oaxaca settlement
system was organized more hierarchically than it ever had been before (Kowalewski et al. 1989:
126-1 38). Graduated settlement classes (by size and mound volume) were most evident close to
Monte Alban, as found in Early I. However, these vertical arrangements extended farther south in
the Valle Grande and to the east in Tlacolula than they had previously (see Figures 5.6 and 6.5 in
Kowalewski et al. [1989]). In part, the growth of new population centers far from Monte Alban
accounts for the different pattern of Early I-Late I population change compared to the prior transition.
Whereas RosarieEarly I demographic growth was characterized by more rapid change close to
Monte Alban, the rates of Early I to Late I growth were greatest at the edges of the valley in the
southern Valle Grande and eastern Tlacolula (Feinman et al. 1985:346). The growth of these new
centers at the southern and eastern fringes of the Valley of Oaxaca was accompanied by the estab-
lishment of many small communities.
Following the general demographic pattern extant since the Early Formative period, population
change between Early I and Late I in Ejutla corresponded more closely to that seen in eastern
Tlacolula and the southern Valle Grande than to the Valley of Oaxaca as a whole. In fact, the tempo
of estimated Early I to Late I demographic growth in Ejutla (1.73 percent) was more rapid than
that observed for any subregion in Oaxaca. Although not unheard of in preindustrial contexts, this
rate does exceed the .6-.7 percent annual growth that could have been maintained by natural increase
alone (excess fertility over mortality) (Cowgill 1975; Hassan 1981). In-migration seems a probable
contributor to the growth in Ejutla, although it is rather unlikely that a great number of migrants
came from the Valley of Oaxaca since the pace of Early I-Late I growth was rapid there as well ( 3 3
percent). Perhaps the rise of political institutions and local exchange connections across the Valley
of Oaxaca system initially provided buffering mechanisms that made agricultural lifeways more
attractive to people who previously had lived in the surrounding mountains.
The three-fold increase in Ejutla's population did coincide with emerging differentiation in set-
tlement size and architectural complexity. Yet, despite a Late I population density in Ejutla that
was roughly equivalent to the Early I density in the Valley of Oaxaca, no Late I Ejutla settlement
was nearly comparable in population or volume of construction to Late I Monte Alban. For that
matter, no Late I Ejutla settlement was as large as Early I Monte Alban, pre-Monte Alban San Jose
Mogote, or even the larger Late I secondarq centers in the Valley of Oaxaca.
Almost 20 percent of the Late I Ejutla sites had estimated mean populations greater than 100;
however, none had more than 350 people. Sixteen of the sites are associated with mounds, but most
E5 E6 E7
Figure 7. Monte Alban Late I settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.
of these sites had no more than four structures, and the mounds were usually small. Later, more
extensive occupational episodes were present at each of the four sites where Late I ceramics were
associated with either more than four structures or with more than 5,000 m3 of architectural volume.
In each instance, the larger, more monumental construction seems to have been built in these later
phases. Late I ceramics were associated exclusively with visible structures at four sites. At each of
these single-component occupations, the single mounds or small mound-plaza groups were low and
volumetrically small.
Pending future excavations, we suspect that Ejutla (unlike the Valley of Oaxaca) was not dominated
by a single center in Late I. Where some temporal control exists (such as at mounds associated with
the pottery of only one phase), the civic-ceremonial construction at Late I Ejutla sites is comparable
in scale (from one to the next) and small (in size). The larger sites, like the regional population as
a whole, were well dispersed, situated principally along rivers and major tributaries (Figure 7). In
fact, in the absence of a great political and population center, settlement location in Ejutla conformed
more closely to the distribution of productive farmland during Late I than in any other phase.
In Late I, the number of small communities along the drainage boundary (in northern Ejutla and
at the southern edge of the Valle Grande) increased. So, while interaction undoubtedly still was
handled horizontally by the inhabitants of these settlements, the pattern of ceramic exchange now
diverged from that found in the prior phase. Late I sites in northern Ejutla did average a slightly
greater number (10.2 vs. 9.3) of types/site than found at contemporaneous settlements in southern
Ejutla (suggesting that proximity to Oaxaca remained a consideration), but the extent of the difference
was reduced markedly from what it had been in Early I. Furthermore, in contrast to Early I, the
inhabitants of larger Late I Ejutla settlements did gain access to greater ceramic variety than did
the occupants of smaller sites (r = .28), though the relation remained weak. Perhaps, vertical (and
elite) interactions and exchange linkages (both inside Ejutla and between Ejutla and Oaxaca) were
assuming greater importance.
From Frontier to Periphery

In recent years, the nature of Monte Alban's relation in the Terminal Formative period to other
areas in the state of Oaxaca has become a matter of discussion (Marcus 1976, 1980, 1983a; Sanders
and Nichols 1988; Winter 1989). Although space limitations and the provenience of our findings
will not permit us to add significantly to this issue in regard to more outlying regions, such as the
Cuicatlan Cafiada (Spencer 1982; Redmond 1983) and the Pacific Coast (Joyce et al. 1989; Zeitlin
1978), we think that a consideration of the changing pattern of Late-Terminal Formative interaction
between Monte Alban and adjacent Ejutla adds a new perspective to the complex and possibly
diverse pattern of long-distance interaction that is emerging for this period.
Perhaps the key impetus to recent discussion was Marcus's (1976) support for and expansion of
Caso's (1947) earlier interpretation of the carved stones on the arrowhead-shaped Building J at
Monte Alban as "conquest slabs." Marcus (1976, 1980, 1983a) compared the place signs depicted
on these Monte Alban I1 blocks with the sixteenth-century Aztec document, the Codex Mendoza,
which listed 11 towns in Oaxaca that paid tribute to the Aztec. In four cases, the place signs depicted
in the Codex Mendoza were similar to those on the earlier "slabs." Marcus cautiously reasoned that
the localities listed in the Mendoza, all well outside the Valley, may represent the same places that
were conquered earlier by Monte Alban.
Spurred in part by Marcus's hypothesis, Spencer (1 982) and Redmond (1983) initiated an inte-
grated survey and excavation program in the Cuicatlan Caiiada, one of four identified localities,
which lies more than 50 rugged kilometers north of the northern edge of the Valley of Oaxaca. In
the Terminal Formative Lomas phase, Spencer and Redmond marshaled several indications of
possible Monte Alban conquest and tribute exaction: (1) a major break with earlier settlement
patterns (leading to a settlement pattern focused on two large settlements, one fortified and the other
with a large plaza and an unprecedented scale of monumental construction); (2) an altered distri-
bution of exotic Valley of Oaxaca-style pottery; (3) fortified sites overlooking a probable trade artery;
(4) high volumes of tropical fruits and nuts (possibly for export to highland Monte Alban); (5)
Feinman and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA 23 1
increased evidence for labor-intensive, nonagricultural (e.g., cloth) production; and (6) a skull rack
(often associated with conquest in Mesoamerica). The militaristic/expansion role of Monte Alban
in Cuicatlan during the Terminal Formative has been challenged by Sanders and Nichols (1988:
50), who question whether the leaders of Monte Alban had the power to influence or dominate
areas so far from home.
What then was the relation between Monte Alban and neighboring Ejutla? Although at present
we must rely on our survey findings alone for Ejutla, we do see some shifts similar to those observed
for Late-Terminal Formative Cuicatlan. Before we address settlement change in Ejutla, several
aspects of the Late I-II transition in the Valley of Oaxaca should be synthesized briefly. Although
Monte Alban continued as the region's predominant center, its degree of control over or integration
with the rest of the Valley appears to have diminished some from Late I (for a detailed review see
Kowalewski et al. 1989: 153-200). Areas occupied in Late I became largely or entirely uninhabited,
creating small buffer zones between Monte Alban I1 settlement clusters (Kowalewski et al. 1989:
16 1). Thus, at the same time that architectural canons for temples and ball courts were adopted
across the valley and conquest was effected outside the region, tensions/competition between local
and Monte Alban elites may have intensified (Kowalewski et al. 1989: 153).
One of these largely abandoned zones was at the extreme southern edge of the Valley of Oaxaca
Settlement Pattern Survey Region. Despite this demographic decline, a few small centers either
continued to be inhabited or grew in importance at this southern fringe (Kowalewski et al. 1989:
186). However, as in Monte Alban I, the centers situated in the far south were dispersed and roughly
similar in size, suggesting that a developed hierarchical network (as existed in most of the rest of
the Valley of Oaxaca) was still not in place.
In the Ejutla region, as in Oaxaca, the Monte Alban I-II transition witnessed a slight population
decline (Table 3). Yet, perhaps more significantly, there was marked discontinuity in settlement
location (Figure 8). As in Cuicatlan, most small Late Formative (Late I) centers either decreased in
size or were abandoned. Three strategically positioned Late I centers did increase in size and
architectural elaboration. The two smaller and southernmost of these centers (one of which straddles
the Rio Atoyac and the other the Rio Miahuatlan immediately before the conjoined river begins
its descent to the Pacific Coast) reached their maximum extent in Monte Alban 11. The third Monte
Alban I1 center, placed right in the middle of the Rio Ejutla drainage and positioned underneath
the contemporary distrito head town of Ejutla, grew to roughly twice the size of any prior Ejutla
settlement or other contemporaneous community. Although the mapping of this site was difficult
because of modem use, nine very large Prehispanic structures were recorded and measured, and
these have a total volume of approximately 80,000 m3, more than four times the estimated volume
of the constructions at the other two large sites. Several of these mounds still stand 10-12 m high,
and mound-fill observations indicated a Monte Alban I1 construction date. These earthen platforms
were some of the largest Prehispanic buildings ever erected in Ejutla, and they greatly exceeded any
earlier construction in the area.
Several other factors point to the Monte Alban Late 1-11 transition as a significant period in the
Ejutla region and to a possible change in the region's interconnection with the Valley of Oaxaca.
As in the southern Valle Grande, the number of small hamlets in northern Ejutla decreased, sug-
gesting a probable drop-off in the kinds of horizontal communications that we believe occurred
earlier along this more open frontier. Instead, for the first time, several Ejutla sites were positioned
in defendable hilltop locations. However, these phase I1 sites were situated differently than later
defendable localities that tended to be placed on high ridgetops at the outer edge of the region
overlooking mountain passes that lead beyond the Ejutla Valley. Rather, the defendable phase I1
sites were positioned on more isolated hilltops that were situated closer to the core of the region
and overlooking the most direct route between Monte Alban and the Ejutla site (a path taken by
the modem highway).
A shift in the nature of interactions between the Valley and Ejutla also is suggested by the changing
distribution in Ejutla of cream paste pottery between Monte Alban I and 11. The few definitive
Monte Alban I cremas found in Ejutla were distributed rather randomly (at sites of different size
and location). Yet, the temporally specific and highly decorated Monte Alban I1 cremas were more
Table 3. Occupation by Phase in Ejutla and Oaxaca.
Number of Sitesa Total Site Areab Total Populationc

Phase Ejutla Oaxaca Ejutla Oaxaca Ejutla Oaxaca
Tierras Largas 26
San Jose 3 41 .6
Guadalupe 45
Rosario 4 85 1.5
Monte Alban Early I 21 26 1 12.1
Monte Alban Late I 63 745 21 1.7
Monte Alban I1 46 519 114.5
Monte Alban IIIA 135 1,077 1,003.1
Monte Alban IIIB 52 629 153.9
Monte Alban IV 444
Monte Alban V 362 2,455 1,071.1
a Initially defined sites have been grouped for certain analysis.
In hectares.
" Mean figure.
abundant at three sites (the Ejutla town site and the two well-positioned gateways, Amatengo and
Yogana). A more direct connection between Monte Alban and these Ejutla centers is indicated.
Whereas little relation was found between settlement population and typeshite in prior phases, the
correlation (r = .73) was stronger in Monte Alban I1 than at any other time in the sequence, again
suggesting a change in the networks of exchange. The three major centers average 28 types, more
than three times the mean for all sites of the phase. Simple proximity to the Valley of Oaxaca was
not the factor that it was earlier, as sites in northern Ejutla actually had access to less ceramic variety
than did settlements in the south.
Already a number of parallels with Cuicatlan are evident-discontinuity in settlement, unprece-
dented construction at one central site, defendable settlements overlooking communication routes,
and the increased importance of crema pottery, particularly at major centers. Nevertheless, with
the Ejutla region situated 40-80 km from Monte Alban, it seems unlikely that the exaction of grain
was a principal aim of Monte Alban in Ejutla. In fact, the Monte Alban I1 population in Ejutla was
not particularly well distributed to maximize grain production. As was suggested by Spencer (1982)
for Cuicatlan, the inhabitants of Ejutla, situated at a lower elevation than the Valley of Oaxaca,
may have grown cotton or other more tropical products desired by elites at Monte Alban. An
alternative, but not mutually exclusive, hypothesis is that Ejutla was important because it could
open exchange links with coastal and lowland areas (to which it still provides a gateway today; see
Beals [1975:44, 1281).
Although many of the likely coastal imports (e.g., feathers, cloth, cacao, animal pelts, tropical
fruits, and resins) would leave few, if any, archaeological traces, particularly on the surface, one
coastal item, shell, was comparatively abundant in surface collections from Ejutla. Surface shell was
recorded at only 20 archaeological localities (out of 2,700) in the Valley of Oaxaca (Kowalewski et
al. 1989); in contrast, shell was recorded on the surface at 21 of 423 sites in Ejutla. Per site, surface
shell was six to seven times more prevalent in Ejutla than in the Valley of Oaxaca. The greatest
surface concentration of marine shell in Ejutla was recorded just at the edge of the modem town
of Ejutla. This locality, which dominated the Ejutla region during Monte Alban 11, is one of only
three settlements in the combined Oaxaca-Ejutla survey region that was identified, on the basis of
surface shell concentrations, worked-shell pieces, and an unusual abundance of drills and other
chipped-stone tools, as a possible shellworking area. The other two sites at which similar materials
are found are the major Valley of Oaxaca centers: Monte Alban and San Jose Mogote (Blanton
1978:Appendix I; Flannery and Winter 1976:39). Unfortunately, pottery from several phases was
found in association with the shell concentration at the Ejutla site, so future excavation is required
to determine if the shell procurement pertains to Monte Alban 11.
The alternate hypothesis-that Monte Alban did not incorporate Ejutla, but was competitive with
the Ejutla town site-cannot be rejected. The latter view might find support in the sparse population
of the southern Valle Grande and northern Ejutla (even though such low-density zones also existed
in the valley, even close to Monte Alban). Furthermore, one might view the few centrally situated
hilltop sites as having a role in internal conflict, and interpret the changing crema distribution as
reflecting an economic strategy by Monte Alban to co-opt Ejutla's elite. From this perspective, the
growth of the Ejutla town site, with its huge platforms and long plazas, might be seen as a local
reaction to the expansionism of Monte Alban. Yet, even the adherents of a nonconquest position
have to acknowledge that the nature of the interaction between Oaxaca and Ejutla underwent a
significant transition, if they are to account for the shifting ceramic distributions and the growth of
the Ejutla site (at the same time that regional population actually declined). Furthermore, given the
length of Monte Alban I1 (400 years), it is highly probable that the conquest of Ejutla by Monte
Alban may have involved episodes of rebellion and co-option (in conjunction with conquest and
tribute exaction). Such strategies were a significant part of the better-documented Aztec case of
Prehispanic mesoamerican conquest (Hassig 1988; Smith 1986).
Whatever Monte Alban's specific relation with Ejutla was during Period 11, it seems clear that
Ejutla fell entirely within the political boundaries of the Monte Alban state by the following phase,
Monte Alban IIIA. The findings from Ejutla correspond with previous arguments (Blanton et al.
1982:85-101; Redmond 1983: 149-168) that have suggested that the Zapotec capital (in IIIA) may
have solidified its domination of its more immediate hinterland at the same time that it was
diminishing its claim to distant arenas (like Cuicatlan). The full incorporation of Ejutla into the
Monte Alban political sphere by Monte Alban IIIA is suggested by the positioning of a ring of
hilltop terrace sites (Figure 9) along the south and southeastern fringes of the valley without a major
gap from Tlacolula to Ejutla. At the same time, a developed lattice of tiered centers extended from
Monte Alban down past the southern Valle Grande well into central Ejutla (Appel 1986; Feinman
and Nicholas 1988: 10; Kowalewski et al. 1989:23 1). Although the lack of these settlement-pattern
features clearly does not signal the absence of conquest or outside control, because strategies of
domination and response may take many forms on a settlement landscape, the continuity of these
networks from the Valley of Oaxaca core south into Ejutla would seem to indicate that the latter
region was by this time well integrated into the larger system.
During Monte Alban IIIA, the great emphasis on new settlement and monumental building in
the Valle Grande extended into Ejutla. The pace of demographic increase was actually greater in
Ejutla than in the Valley of Oaxaca, although it was not as rapid as in the southern Valle Grande
(Table 4). The estimated population density during IIIA in Ejutla was not only greater than in any
prior phase, but it was proportionally closer to the valley population density than at any time during
the Prehispanic era (Table 1). In Ejutla, the densest habitation was in the center of the region around
the Rio Ejutla and its tributaries (Figure 10). Thus, the potential for surplus agricultural production
was more than twice what it was in Monte Alban I1 (Feinman and Nicholas 1990).
A major center was established near San Joaquin in north-central Ejutla. The Ejutla town site,
which had been preeminent in 11, remained the second largest community in the region (as it grew
slightly); however, it was only one-fourth the size of San Joaquin. San Joaquin is more than 5 km
closer than the Ejutla town site to both Monte Alban and Jalieza. The repositioning of Ejutla's
principal center (from Ejutla to San Joaquin) closer to Monte Alban may signal the increasing
importance of interaction and exchange connections between these settlements (see Steponaitis
[I9781 for a parallel argument concerning a smaller-scale system).
For Monte Alban, grain tribute from Ejutla may have been a more important consideration than
it was earlier. Yet, transportation costs for the three- or four-day round-trip from the Ejutla region
to Monte Alban likely would have made the exaction of maize tribute from the Valle Grande and
western Tlacolula less costly strategies. If grain needs were a factor, then it is likely that Ejutla's
potential agricultural surpluses may have been used to support nearby military or border installa-
tions. Thus, Monte Alban's principal interests in Ejutla may have been for defense, and as a link
to exotic (coastal and lowland) products.
Whereas IIIA terrace sites in the Valley of Oaxaca generally were situated in defendable locales,
they often also had large residential populations. Many of the valley terrace sites encompassed
Figure 9. Monte Alban IIIA terrace sites in the Valley of Oaxaca and the Ejutla Valley. (San Joaquin is the
large settlement situated in grid SlE6.)
hundreds of residential terraces and thousands of people. Often, these same sites also were important
civic-ceremonial centers with large mound complexes. Ejutla's terraced sites, like those in Oaxaca,
were internally diverse in size and location. Nevertheless, as a group, the former were much smaller,
having many fewer terraces per site. The two largest IIIA terrace sites in Ejutla had fewer than 6 5
terraces, and both of these sites lie just south of the survey boundary with Oaxaca. Most of the
hilltop sites in Ejutla had few terraces, and many had walls or were situated inaccessibly (1-2 hours
walk above the alluvium). Thus, while the network of hilltop sites extended relatively unbroken
from the Valley of Oaxaca, the function of these sites seems to change, becoming more defensible
(lookouts and gamsons) and less residential and administrative than those to the north. A number
Table 4. Demographic Rates of Change in Ejutla and Oaxaca.
Valley of Oaxaca Subregions

West- East-
North South em em
Valle Valle Tlaco- Tlaco-
Phase Transition Eiutla Oaxaca Etla Central Grande Grande lula lula
Tierras Largas-San Jose +.74 +.I4 +.I1 +.67 +.54
San Jose-Guadalupe - .03 + .02 .oo -.16 -.59
Guadalupe-Rosario -.34 +.39 +.85 + 1.49 +2.67
Rosari-Monte Alban Early I +.85 + 1.52 +.83 + 1.20 +.76
Monte Alban Early I-Late I +.80 +.97 +1.08 +.58 +1.14
Monte Alban 1-11 -.lo -.21 -.lo + .09 -.01
Monte Alban 11-IIIA -.I3 +.51 +.75 +.52 +.57
Monte Alban IIIA-IIIB +.66 -.70 - 1.23 -.59 -1.13
Monte Alban I I I E I V - 1.54 +.54 +.81 +.31 + 1.29
Monte Alban IV-V - - -
+.69 + .07 +.21 +.22 +.I7
Note These estimated rates of populat~ongrowth (r) are expressed as the percentage of annual change. They
were calculated between the temporal midpoints of each phase using mean population values.
of the Ejutla hilltop sites overlook the pass that connects the east side of the valley to the drainage
of the Rio Tehuantepec and its tributaries.
Yet, Ejutla's external linkages were not all militaristic. Shell and cotton (as well as other products)
may have been supplied to Valley of Oaxaca sites from the coast (through Ejutla). Unfortunately,
much of the surface data pertinent to spinning and shellworking in Ejutla could not be assigned to
a single phase; rather these materials were recorded most frequently in multicomponent contexts.
For example, both the shell concentration at the Ejutla town site (with hundreds of pieces of surface
shell and numerous worked pieces) and a probable shellworking area to the south in the Miahuatlan
region (Brockington 1973) were associated with IIIA pottery as well as with ceramic materials from
other phases. Nevertheless, marine shell was noted at 17 IIIA sites in Ejutla, and at five of these
sites the surface shell was associated with IIIA diagnostics alone. Five spindle whorls could be dated
securely to IIIA (more single component associations than we have for any other phase). Since most
of the whorls found to date in Ejutla conform to Mary Parsons's (1972) smallest (or Type 111)
category, which she links to cotton spinning, the presence of both of these goods (cotton and shell)
in Ejutla during IIIA seems clear (though their relative economic importance is not). Nevertheless,
as discussed elsewhere (Feinman and Nicholas 1987b, 1990), surface marine shell and spindle whorls
were actually more abundant in Ejutla survey collections than they were in the Valley of Oaxaca
(despite the much larger size of the latter region).
Ejutla's gateway position in exchange also is suggested by the variable distributions of obsidian
at single component sites in Ejutla and Oaxaca. There are no obsidian sources in the central valleys
of Oaxaca, so the material was imported from elsewhere in Mesoamerica. Both green (probably
from central Mexico) and gray obsidian (from a wide range of possible sources) were found in pure
IIIA contexts. For the Valley of Oaxaca, the ratio of green to gray obsidian was .37 (Finsten 1983),
compared to .07 in Ejutla contexts. This greater frequency of green obsidian in Oaxaca is not
surprising, since it probably reached the Oaxaca Valley system from the north. Likewise, some gray
obsidian may have entered the valley system from areas to the south and east (Elam et al. 1990;
Pires-Femeira 1975) through Ejutla. As a consequence, Ejutla's ratio of green to gray obsidian in
single-component contexts is interesting because it is matched most closely by the southern Valle
Grande, the subregion that bounds Ejutla.
Much additional research will be necessary to elaborate the specific nature of the Terminal
Formative-Early Classic relationship between the polity centered at Monte Alban and the population
of the Ejutla region. Furthermore, future archaeological fieldwork is required to clarify changes in
this relationship over time and to amplifq the mechanisms responsible for those transitions. Yet,
despite these uncertainties, there seems little question that sometime in Monte Alban Late I or 11,
Figure 10. Monte Alban IIIA settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.
Ejutla's position in the macroregional socioeconomic network shifted from a sparsely settled frontier
to a peripheral portion of the polity centered at ancient Monte Alban.
The Postclassic in Ejutla

At present, using surface ceramic collections from Ejutla, we have not been able to distinguish
Monte Alban IIIB from IV. Therefore, in discussing the Prehispanic era that follows the Early
Classic, we are limited in Ejutla to two phases: a combined IIIB-IV and V (Figure 2). Because IIIB-
IV in the Valley of Oaxaca brackets the cessation of monumental construction at Monte Alban, it
is not clear how Monte Alban IIIB-IV in Ejutla relates to the sequence of events at Oaxaca's capital.
While better chronological control will be necessary to unravel the specific relations between Ejutla
and Monte Alban in IIIB-IV, we suspect that demographic decline and decreasing connectivity with
Monte Alban may have begun in the southern Valle Grande and Ejutla prior to the collapse of the
capital itself.
Figure 11. Monte Alban IV settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.
Whether one examines the Valley of Oaxaca central-place map for Monte Alban IIIB (see Ko-
walewski et al. 1989:Figure 9.3) or IV (Kowalewski et al. 1989:Figure 9.15), the shifts in the southern
Valle Grande (compared to the rather continuous lattice of centers that was in place during IIIA)
are dramatic (Kowalewski et al. 1989:23 1). In both phases (IIIB and IV), population in the southern
Valle Grande was reduced markedly from what it had been in the Early Classic (Table 4). Larger
settlements in southern Oaxaca were either isolated or situated in small clusters that were interspersed
by sizeable unoccupied areas. The southern Valle Grande does not seem to have been well integrated
with the remainder of the Valley of Oaxaca in either phase. The sparseness of settlement in northern
Ejutla (Figure 11) during IIIB-IV suggests that the linkages between settlements in Ejutla and Oaxaca
were also tenuous.
In Ejutla, the IIIA to IIIB-IV transition followed a similar pattern to that in the southern Valle
Grande, but the demographic crash was even greater. The estimated population for IIIB-IV in Ejutla
was roughly 20 percent of what it was in IIIA. Most of the larger IIIA centers declined markedly
Figure 12. Monte Alban V Ejutla Valley sites in defendable locations.
in size (or were abandoned entirely). No single Monte Alban I I I R I V Ejutla settlement was much
larger or architecturally more elaborate than all others. Rather, the I I I R I V population was distrib-
uted in several similarly sized settlement clusters that were segregated spatially from each other.
With their dispersed locations and the positioning of several of the larger Ejutla settlements on
defendable hilltops, these settlement clusters were probably semiautonomous polities, like the petty
states that emerged in the Valley of Oaxaca following the collapse of Monte Alban (Kowalewski et
al. 1989:305; Marcus 1989).
Fine Orange and Fine Gray pottery, Early Postclassic ceramic vessels that have been interpreted
to signal affiliations with the Gulf Coast and Maya areas (JimCnez Moreno 1966; Paddock 1966),
were comparatively abundant in Ejutla. The relative abundance of these well-made ceramics could
reflect both the position of the Ejutla region as a link to the south and east (Fine Orange and Fine
Gray were absent in ceramic collections from the northernmost Etla subregion [Kowalewski et al.
1989:254]), as well as the relative economic autonomy of Ejutla's Postclassic polities (also indicated
by the green to gray obsidian ratio for Monte Alban V discussed below).
In the subsequent Late Postclassic period, the regional populations of both Ejutla and Oaxaca
increased to their Prehispanic maxima (Table 3), yet no single center dominated either the Valley
of Oaxaca or the Ejutla region. In the latter, the three major centers (Coatecas Altas, Ejutla, and
Taniche) all averaged 2,000-3,000 inhabitants. Although these settlements were much smaller than
the largest Valley of Oaxaca centers (Macuilxochitl, Sa'a Yucu, and Mitla), they were comparable
in size to the largest centers in Etla and the southern Valle Grande, the two Oaxaca subregions
farthest removed from the region's new demographic core in Tlacolula (Table 1). As during most
of the Prehispanic era, the Ejutla region's overall population density was less than that of the Valley
of Oaxaca or any of its subregions examined individually.
As in IIIA, many Period V settlements in Ejutla were either situated in defendable locations or
encircled by standing defensive walls (Figure 12). Many of these Late Postclassic Ejutla sites were
situated to monitor access between the Rio Tehuantepec drainage and the Ejutla region's three
principal centers (Figure 13). These defendable settlements did not form a continuous network with
similar ridgetop sites in Oaxaca (as had existed in IIIA). Thus, the two regions do not seem as
politically interconnected as they were during Monte Alban IIIA when the entire region was dom-
inated by a single center (Monte Alban). The relative economic autonomy of the Late Postclassic
Ejutla population (compared to IIIA) is suggested by the ratio of green to gray obsidian. In IIIA,
the ratio for Oaxaca was .37 compared to .07 for Ejutla. In contrast, the ratio for Period V Ejutla
was .36 (as relatively more green obsidian was found in the region). However, green obsidian was
available to a much greater degree in Oaxaca where the ratio was 2.13. The disparity between regions
was far larger than noted for IIIA, suggesting that obsidian perhaps was procured through more
autonomous channels in the later phase.
The Early Classic political consolidation of the Ejutla region into a single Valley of Oaxaca polity
appears never to have been matched in the Postclassic. As in the Valley of Oaxaca, the Postclassic
political landscape in Ejutla seems to have been relatively decentralized. Nevertheless, the similar
trajectories of Postclassic demographic change, as well as the general ceramic similarities between
the regions, suggest that important links were not dissolved completely following the fall of Monte
Alban (Rrockington 1983:25-26; Feinman and Nicholas 1987b). The Ejutla region may have been
somewhat economically peripheral to the Valley of Oaxaca in Monte Alban V. Valley of Oaxaca
sites averaged slightly more types/site (4.8) than Ejutla settlements (4.4), and the most highly
decorated bowl varieties (polychrome, graphite-on-orange, red-on-cream, and footed vessels) were
proportionally more abundant in Oaxaca than Ejutla (Feinman 1989).
Ejutla's relation to the Valley of Oaxaca shifted after the fall of Monte Alban. Politically the
former region appears to have been more independent in the Postclassic, and it seems to have
established more autonomous links to other regions of Mesoamerica than was the case earlier. Yet,
the concentration of population was greater in the larger region and access to ceramic goods may
have been better in the Valley of Oaxaca as well.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Although the Ejutla region was settled later and at lower population densities than the Valley of
Oaxaca, we suggest that the nature of the Prehispanic linkages between the two areas was neither
uniform nor stable. Ejutla's relation with Oaxaca shifted from a near-vacant frontier to a periphery.
Yet even specific aspects of its peripheral relation changed between the Terminal Formative and
Late Postclassic periods. Following the Early Classic period, Ejutla does not seem to have been
integrated into a single Oaxacan polity, though it may have been somewhat economically dependent
on the larger region. Although Ejutla never became a political core in the central valleys of Oaxaca,
one need look no farther than Mexico's central highlands to find an example of a Prehispanic
periphery that later did become a regional core (e.g., Guadalupe Mastache and Cobean 1989).
The Ejutla region cannot be viewed as a simple microcosm of the Valley of Oaxaca. The magnitude
Feinrnan and Nicholas] SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY, OAXACA
Figure 13. Monte Alban V settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley. (The three largest Monte Alban V sites
are Ejutla [S2E7j, Taniche [S2E6 and S3E6j, and Coatecas Altas, which runs along ridges in S2E9 and adjacent
squares.)
of demographic and settlement pattern differences between the two regions varied greatly over time.
The population history of Ejutla most closely mirrored the adjacent southern Valle Grande subregion,
yet the scale of the increase in the latter region during Monte Alban IIIA was far greater. At various
points in the Prehispanic sequence, the demographic density in Ejutla conformed most closely to
that found in the eastern Tlacolula and Etla subregions; however, Tlacolula became the regional
core in the Monte Alban V period while Etla was the heart of the valley prior to the establishment
of Monte Alban. Ejutla never achieved such a central demographic or political role despite agrarian
resources that exceeded the potential of eastern Tlacolula. Like eastern Tlacolula, Ejutla served as
a gateway to the coast and to the lowlands. The history of Prehispanic Ejutla cannot be retrodicted
simply from knowledge about the larger adjacent Valley of Oaxaca or from the region's environ-
mental context. Small and agriculturally marginal areas must be studied in their own right to be
understood, and by so doing, new questions will be generated about the areas that they adjoin.
Several artifact classes were proportionally (or even numerically) more abundant in survey col-
lections from Ejutla than in Oaxaca. Above, we discussed spindle whorls, marine shell, and Fine
Orange and Fine Gray pottery. Projectile points also were somewhat more prevalent on the surface
in Ejutla (roughly 11 per 100 km2 of survey region compared to approximately 6 per 100 km2 in
Oaxaca). Many (though certainly not all) of the points recorded in Ejutla were found at the hilltop
sites (prominent in IIIA and V). Their proportional abundance may reflect the relative importance
of military activities (at least during certain phases) in the region, a hypothesis that also emerged
from the large number of sites in defendable locations (Figures 9 and 12). Such congruences, as well
as the recognition of patterning that seems to make geographic sense (e.g., relative prevalence of
marine shell in an area closer to the coast), would seem to provide added measures of support for
the unique importance of regional survey research. Such studies seem essential both for the rec-
ognition of intraregional differences and similarities at broad temporal and spatial scales, and for
the generation of a comparative perspective on more than one region when studied in similar
fashion.
In conclusion, we return to our opening observation regarding the regularity of diachronic change
in system scale. If our perspective on the Oaxaca highlands had ceased with the Terminal Formative-
Early Classic period, we could conclude that the size of the Oaxaca system had increased through
time. Yet, if we broaden the time scale to the Postclassic, the issue becomes more complicated.
Clearly, the size of the largest Oaxacan polity decreased both territorially and demographically after
the Early Classic, though the regional population (as a whole) only reached its apex at the end of
the Prehispanic sequence. At the same time, market and exchange institutions in the Oaxaca high-
lands may have expanded in the Late Postclassic (Kowalewski et al. 1989:307-366), but we ac-
knowledge that such networks are difficult to measure archaeologically.Thus, from the perspective
of the entire Prehispanic era, steady increments in system scale certainly are not evident. Modifying
one's time scale (and whether one looks at political or economic linkages) affects how the initial
question is evaluated and answered.
Yet, the spatial parameters maintained for the above discussion were constant and perhaps
somewhat less appropriate for the Late Postclassic period than for earlier phases. Regional boundaries
were more permeable, and the surrounding mountain areas, which previously had served as sparsely
settled buffers, were inhabited much more densely late in the sequence than they had been earlier
(Drennan 1984, 1989). According to ethnohistoric accounts, central Mexican (Aztec) states ventured
into the Oaxaca highlands (Marcus 1983b), and coastal polities militaristically threatened southern
portions of the valley system (Ball and Brockington 1978; Brockington 1973; Davies 1968) late in
the Prehispanic era. Although these forays appear not to have fully consolidated the entire Oaxaca
Valley system into a much larger administrative sphere, it is not too improbable to suggest that
such large and articulated polities may have emerged eventually had it not been for the arrival of
the Spaniards.
Perhaps several lessons can be drawn from this last discussion. First, we find much wisdom in
the positions of Adams (1977) and Smith (1983), who advocate multiscale perspectives on human
society and history. Whether one looks at the Valley of Oaxaca, the southern highlands, or all of
highland Mesoamerica, a different answer may emerge concerning how the size of sociopolitical
entities change over time. Likewise, the time frame adopted may affect one's perspective. Thus,
more importantly, we suggest that questions in the life sciences-even those that at first appear
rather simple and straightforward-often require answers that are both complex and contingent.
Acknowledgments. We gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation support given to both the
Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project (GS-28547, GS-388030, and BNS-19640 to Richard E. Blanton;
BNS-79 14124 to Stephen A. Kowalewski) and the Ejutla Valley Settlement Pattern Project (BNS-84-06229and
BNS-85-42668 to the senior author). The permission and assistance of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia
e Historia and the Centro Regional de Oaxaca are recognized with great appreciation. Joaquin Garcia Barcena
and Manuel Esparza have been particularly supportive over the years. We also would like to thank the Rota
project and Apple Computer for granting us the equipment on which several of our figures were prepared. This
paper was written and revised while the senior author was a resident scholar at the School of American Research.
We thank Douglas W. Schwartz and the School of American Research staff for providing such a stimulating
atmosphere for productive research. Richard E. Blanton, Joyce Marcus, Prudence Rice, and three anonymous
reviewers read an earlier version of this work. We are very appreciative of the time they took to offer thoughtful
suggestions and constructive comments.
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Received February 28, 1990; accepted July 6, 1990

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At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca,
Mexico
Gary M. Feinman; Linda M. Nicholas
Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 1, No. 3. (Sep., 1990), pp. 216-246.
Stable URL:
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En Los Margenes de Monte Alban

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En Los Margenes de Monte Alban

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At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley,

Gary M. Feinman; Linda M. Nicholas

Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 1, No. 3. (Sep., 1990), pp. 216-246.

Latin American Antiquity is currently published by Society for American Archaeology.

Gary M. Feinman and Linda M. Nicholas

Latin American Antiquity, 1 (3), 1990, pp. 2 16-246.

PREHISPANIC SETTLEMENT IN THE EJUTLA VALLEY

MONTE ALBAN V MONTE ALBAN V

LATE CLASSIC I MONTEALBAN I I B I IIIB-IV

MONTE ALBAN LATE I ( MONTE ALBAN LATE I

1OOC SAN JOSE

The Ejutla and Oaxaca Survey Regions

Table 1 . Population Densities (per km2) in Ejutla and Oaxaca.

Valley of Oaxaca Subregions

Table 2. Component Density (per km2) by Phase for Ejutla and

Phase Eiutla Oaxaca

A DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE O N INTERREGIONAL INTERACTION:

Early Sedentary Communities in Ejutla

KEY SITES MENTIONED

Figure 4. Pre-Monte Alban settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.

The Foundation and Early Growth of Monte Alban

SJ ROS El LI II lllA IV V > 10000

CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF PHASES

From Frontier to Periphery

Table 3. Occupation by Phase in Ejutla and Oaxaca.

Number of Sitesa Total Site Areab Total Populationc

Table 4. Demographic Rates of Change in Ejutla and Oaxaca.

Valley of Oaxaca Subregions

The Postclassic in Ejutla

Figure 11. Monte Alban IV settlement pattern in the Ejutla Valley.

Figure 12. Monte Alban V Ejutla Valley sites in defendable locations.

Received February 28, 1990; accepted July 6, 1990

You have printed the following article:

World Picture, Anthropological Frame

The Mesoamerican World System

On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes

Long-Distance Transport Costs in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica

Long-Term Demographic Change: A Perspective from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Shifts in Production and Organization: A Cluster-Interaction Model [and Comments and

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