Excavations at Cerro Tilcajete: A Monte Albán II Administrative Center in the Valley of Oaxaca
- ISBN-10
- 0915703661
- ISBN-13
- 9780915703661
- Pages
- 138
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007
- Publisher
- University of Michigan Museum
- Author
- Christina Elson
Description
This volume¿the fourteenth in the monograph series on the prehistory and human ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico¿focuses on Cerro Tilcajete, a secondary administrative center below Monte Albán, the capital of the prehispanic Zapotec state. After defeating the Tilcajete region, Monte Albán created a new administrative center for the Ocatlán region: Cerro Tilcajete. Elson's excavations at the Period II center showed that, in contrast to San José Mogote, Cerro Tilcajete was a newly created regional center rather than a reoccupation of an earlier site, and documented the nature of Cerro Tilcajete's ties to Monte Albán, especially the links between the elite families at the capital and those at Cerro Tilcajete. Elson deftly moves us away from the top-down, capital-centric focus, and in so doing, gives us new insights into secondary administrative centers in a pristine state.
