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

period (1500-1150 BC) and, therefore, these developments are relatively unknown
(Sanders and Price 1968). Nevertheless, there are political and geographic analogies
among El Rabón, Cuatotolapan Viejo, San Lorenzo, and El Marquesillo. Each became
strategic centers in their own right, and all were tied directly to river courses and areas of
annual inundation (Cyphers 2004:273; Killion and Urcid 2001). In summary, these four
centers all began during the same temporal phase and are the only sites known to contain
the earliest ceramic horizon in the region. Their ceramic inventories were restricted but
highly uniform. Each site evolved as centers of socioeconomic development, and all were
situated at similar geophysical locations. Cumulatively, this evidence suggests that the
initial deposition of pre-Olmec ceramics could be seen as a marker for the initiation of
archaeologically detectable sedentism and eventual sociopolitical development.
Continued Occupation and Expansion at El Marquesillo
Based on analysis of the ceramic evidence from a site-wide surface collection,
repeated surveys of the 1.5 km-long exposed river cut, and excavations conducted during
the Olmec throne rescue project, the pre-Olmec phase occupational area appears to be
spatially restricted to the northern portion of Field 6. In contrast, the appearance of
ceramics associated with the San Lorenzo Olmec phase (c. 1150-900 BC) marks a point
of significant change in the scale of El Marquesillo’s 350 year-long settlement history.
The distribution of ceramics from this later period indicates an expansion of occupation
to sectors across the entire survey area of Fields 1-8.
Interpretation of the location of numerous surface and sub-surface features, along
with differential artifact and ceramic deposition patterns suggests that the site contained a
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