Tierras Largas is a formative-period

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

located in the Etla arm in the

Valley of Oaxaca The Central Valleys () of Oaxaca, also simply known as the Oaxaca Valley, is a geographic region located within the modern-day state of Oaxaca in southeastern Mexico. In an administrative context, it has been defined as comprising the districts of ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is considered to be one of the first

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

s where

sedentism In anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. As of , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and arch ...

originated in the Oaxaca area. The name is

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for “Long Lands”.

Overview

Tierras Largas is categorized as a smaller,

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

village in its region. Located on fertile soils, it was a

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

village that contributed resources to the larger governing

chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...

San José Mogote San José Mogote is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Zapotec civilization, Zapotec, a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in the region of what is now the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Oaxaca. A forerunner to the better- ...

, 10 kilometers north of Tierras Largas. Tierras Largas has seven sub-phases (one of the phases which shares the same name) spread over the Early and Middle Formative periods. There are no signs of population expansion in Tierras Largas. The site is known to excavators for its house clusters, which are common amongst smaller villages in the Oaxaca Valley.

Village

Tierras Largas was not a largely populated village in

mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. Throughout its seven

phase Phase or phases may refer to: Science *State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist *Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform *Phase space, a mathematica ...

lifespan, the village housed a small farming community that would provide agriculture including

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

s, and

squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

for the larger nearby village of San José Mogote. This small farming community neither grew nor shrunk drastically in size, and throughout each of its phases, the village had a consistent number of houses.

Art

Many forms of art have been recovered from Tierras Largas, “people used imported shell to make beads, and pendants”. Most small villages had pottery vessels that had either earthquake or lightning motifs on them. Almost all pottery vessels with motifs recovered from Tierras Largas favoured earthquakes and had them and earth related motifs on them.

Artifacts found at the site

*Avocado pits and presence of beans *

Deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

s *Finished mirrors * In

feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...

57a: *Complete

mano Mano may refer to: People * Mano people, an ethnic group in Liberia * Mano (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Mano (Mozambican footballer), Celso Halilo de Abdul (born 1984) * Mano (Portuguese footballer), Luís Migu ...

and

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organi ...

*Large complete jar *Broken figurine *Piece of carbonized wood for matting *Portion of a second jar In House 1: *

Chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

cores * Scrapers *Retouch flakes *

Sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

discs Out of all the stone found at Tierras Largas, 20% was

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

Tierras Largas Phase

The Tierras Largas Phase is from 1500 BC-1150BC. During this time, there were numerous sedentary farming villages located throughout the Valley of Oaxaca. At this time, most settlements were located on low, well-drained piedmont ridges or spurs adjacent to both the fertile zone of high alluvial soils and the major river channels. Tierras Largas phase settlements can be found throughout all three arms of the Valley of Oaxaca, but it is most prominent in the northern arm, the Etla arm. The largest community recognized in the Etla arm is San José Mogote. It is during this phase that we see buildings which are nonresidential, public constructions. “Based on the analyses of the Tierras Largas phase burials, houses, and storage pits, there is no indication that either ranking or socially determined inequality or stratification existed at this time”.Blanton 1993, p.55

References

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Bibliography

* Beckmann, Jenifer, Charles S. Spencer, Redmond, Elsa M. �
Division of Anthropology: Early State Development at San Martín Tilcajete
��, American Museum & Natural History, 2011 * Blanton, Richard E., Stephen A. Kowalewski, Feinman, Gary M. (1993). Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions: New Studies in Archaeology. United Kingdom: Cambridge :University Press. *Earle, Timothy K. (1993). Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology. England: Cambridge University Press. * Flannery, Kent V. and Jeremy A. Sabloff (2009). The Early Mesoamerican village. California: Left Coast Press. * Joyce, Arthur A. (2010). Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: ancient people of southern Mexico. John Wiley and Sons. * Toby Evans, Susan. (2008). Ancient Mexico & Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. London: Thames and Hudson. Mesoamerican sites Archaeological sites in Oaxaca