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

To achieve and maintain this elevated position within the sociopolitical hierarchy would
have required significant populations and the requisite organization for monumental
construction, extensive subsistence, and productive exchange.
The Postclassic Period (c. AD 900-1523)
Throughout the Postclassic period, El Marquesillo and its environs appear to have
been insulated from western aggression. There is no definitive evidence to suggest that
Toltec or Aztec authority was ever imposed in the territory. Nevertheless, there does
appear to have been an incident of an Aztec incursion near the region in the fifteenth
century AD. According to Mexica accounts (Aguirre-Beltrán 1989:46; Berdan and
Anawalt 1997:113), following the conquest of the upper Papaloapan River Basin in 1457,
emperor and military leader Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina (Montezuma I) sent troops to the
Basin’s lowlands. One military group made its way upstream along the Río Michapan
(the Spanish designated San Juan River) but no claim of imperial conquest was made.
Three decades later, the exploits of Emperor Ahuitzotl (AD 1487-1502) expanded
the territory of the Aztec realm and reasserted control over previously occupied areas.
This increased acquisition appears to have been driven by the need for an expansion of
income through trade and tribute to compensate for the dwindling economic resources of
the empire (Berdan and Anawalt 1992). The emperor focused on the borderland regions,
beyond areas incorporated by his predecessors, and possibly pushed near to the lower San
Juan Basin, but records indicate this activity occurred well west of El Marquesillo
(Aguirre-Beltrán 1989).
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