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Obsidian procurement in formative Oaxaca, Mexico: Diachronic changes in political economy and interregional interaction

Abstract Throughout Mesoamerica, archaeologists have found that compositional sourcing analysis of obsidian provides a valuable indicator of interregional interaction and political economy. We recently sourced obsidian from two different periods, the Early Formative (1200/1150–850 B.C.) and Middle/Late Formative (500–300 B.C.), at Etlatongo in the Nochixtlán Valley of the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore diachronic changes in its procurement. Villagers consumed obsidian in a variety of ways. For the Early Formative, villagers accessed obsidian from a surprising range of sources, while focusing on a central Mexican one. Samples from two earlier sites, Yucuita, in the Mixteca Alta, and Rancho Dolores Ortíz, in an adjacent region, were also analyzed in order to contextualize changes at Etlatongo. The Middle/Late Formative obsidian sample from Etlatongo shows less reliance on one source but a consistent central Mexican focus, and is compared with recent samples from the major Zapotec urban center in the Valley of Oaxaca, Monte Albán, and the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as well as with previous samples from those regions and the Lower Río Verde Valley. These comparisons reveal changes and continuity in the obsidian sources utilized as well as the nature of distribution, interaction, and competition among and within regions.