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

illustrates an almost complete absence of artifacts, of any type, across the plaza. The
interpretation of this combination of evidence suggests that, whatever activity occurred in
the plaza, any remains were cleaned from the surface soon after the completion of the
event, before the chemical residues had time to leach into the soil and attach to the matrix
particles.
Additional support for plaza cleansing may be found in the results from the
surface collection that suggest a concentrated, long term disposal site. A single 50 m x 50
m grid unit, N1-W6, shows a highly circumscribed and concentrated deposit of 637
ceramic sherds, which represents nearly 15 percent of the total surface assemblage.
Chronologically diagnostic ceramics from all phases recognized at the site were
recovered in this single grid unit. Furthermore, the quantities of each of these diagnostic
types were, by far, greater than at any other location at the site. Ceramic sherds were the
only type of artifact recovered here, and no other artifact deposition was recorded within
50 m of this unit. Unit N1-W6 is located in the depression at the foot of the basal
platform, and is directly adjacent to the northern perimeter of Plaza II. Therefore, it is
suggested that this location was the deposit site of the refuse cleaned from the plaza’s
surface.
In summation, the natural and constructed features in and around the Olmec
Throne Complex appear to demonstrate that the community of El Marquesillo actively
participated in the Formative period Gulf Coast Olmec ideological paradigm. “Sculpture
constitutes one of the earliest examples in ancient Mexico of large-scale ideological
communication through the interaction of architecture and sculpture” (González-Lauck
2001:800). The continued use of the plazas and its features over a 2,000 year period add
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