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

appearance of ceramics occurred during the Barra phase (c. 1550-1400 BC) and is
considered a marker of the region’s sedentism and the initiation of the emergence of
ranked society. The subsequent Locona phase ceramics (c. 1400-1250 BC) were closely
associated with elite activities and the materialization of a chiefdom level society (Blake
1991; Clark and Blake 1994).
Another factor of emergent complexity is concerned with regional sociopolitical
relationships. Clark and Blake (1994:20) maintain that incipient ranked societies do not
appear in isolation but, instead, evolved within a network of socially equivalent and
interacting groups that emerge simultaneously. This type of collective group emergence
and requisite interrelationships is widely recognized in the rise of social complexity
across Mesoamerica (Earle 1997; Feinman 1991; Hayden 1995b; Schortman and Urban
1991). At El Marquesillo, during its period of the initial occupation, analogous situations
were also occurring nearby in the Southern Gulf Lowlands. The closest similar
habitations with pre-Olmec ceramics transpired at Cuatotolapan Viejo, approximately 20
km downstream from El Marquesillo, and to the southeast, at Estero Rabón-San Isidro,
near the juncture of El Julie and El Rabón Rivers (Borstein 2001). The most celebrated
initial occupation at this time occurred on the San Lorenzo plateau along the
Coatzacoalcos River (Coe and Diehl 1980a). Therefore, consideration of
contemporaneous regional occupations and similarities of ceramic artifacts appear to
demonstrate the connections between these sites. There may be others that demonstrate
the same evidence as well.
At this point in the investigation of the Southern Gulf Lowlands, there are little
data relating to the social and economic developments that occurred in the pre-Olmec
251