An Unexplored Realm in the Heartland of the Southern Gulf ... - Famsi

offerings were intrusively deposited into the basal level of a Formative platform. To date,
three discrete offering events have been detected and are detailed in Chapter 5. The
content, manner, and depositional placement of the ceramics suggest that the individuals
making the offerings possessed knowledge of the specific location and construction of the
Formative period structures. The later inhabitants did not build or live on these two
Formative period structures; the only evidence of the subsequent inhabitants is these
apparently intentionally deposited items. Consideration of the 1500 to 2000 years that
elapsed between the construction event and the depositional activity may indicate that the
makers of the offerings were demonstrating deference for this ancestral place. If this
interpretation is correct, it also suggests occupational continuity and social memory.
The development of ceramic styles and technologies at El Marquesillo occurred
over significant time periods and shared form, decoration, and technologies with groups,
Olmec and pre-Olmec, located in the Coatzacoalcos drainage to the east. There are not
any apparent intrusions of dominating or invasive influences from western external
sources, however. Styles, forms, decoration, or iconography from Teotihuacán, El Tajín,
Tula, or Tenochtitlán have not been detected at El Marquesillo. These influences appear
at sites to the west and north, including Cerro de las Mesas and in the Tuxtla Mountain
region (Diehl 2000a:172-173). Possible reasons for this anomalous situation are
presented in the following section.
The extent and complexity of the Villa Alta architectural construction at El
Marquesillo qualifies it for placement within the upper echelon of regional site hierarchy
(Killion and Urcid 2001). During the Late Classic and early Postclassic periods, El
Marquesillo was a major center with associations spanning much of the San Juan Basin.
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