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

Early architectural units, specifically low basal platforms that could provide
foundations for perishable structures, are possibly diagnostic of descent group residence
(Ashmore 1991; McAnany 1995:102). This type of structure is present at El Marquesillo
at the location of the earliest ceramic deposits in Field 6. Other similar platforms are
present in Fields 5 (Structure 83) and Field 7 (Structure 111) as well. River cut bank
Profiles 6B and 7A illustrate sequential floor constructions suggesting continuous and
spatially consistent occupation along the east edge of Fields 6 and 7.
The differential orientation of basal platforms and other structures is also
associated with lineage groupings and related activities. Two complexes with differing
orientations are present and are delineated by Alignments A and B, both possibly
associated with celestial events. Structure 109, Linear Anomaly 1, and Structure 84
compose the complex immediately to the north of the original Early Formative residence,
and the Olmec Throne Complex is directly adjacent to the south. The architectural
features that create Alignments C, D, and E may also be demonstrations or delineations
of land and resource boundaries and their inherited proprietary rights. The effort,
coordination, and motivation (i.e., economic, ideological, coercive, or other form of
exploitation) required to accomplish these large-scale labor projects suggests some level
of organizational authority, possibly a result of real or fictitious ancestral inheritance
issues.
Symbolic allusions to ancestor veneration are present at El Marquesillo as well as
other Formative period sites in the Southern Gulf Lowlands discussed in Chapter 2. In
Chapter 6, El Marquesillo’s standing pools of water and the symbolic representation of a
cave entrance on the monumental throne were detailed and interpreted as portals to the
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