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

Confederacy Model
Pool (2000:150;2003a:92) believes that the mound complexes at Tres Zapotes
may have served as seats of authority. If these plaza groups functioned concurrently, “the
political system may have been organized more as a confederacy, with several elite
lineages sharing and negotiating ruling authority” (Pool 2003:96). This model is
primarily concerned with the processes of nucleation, the geospatial configuration of
population and activity areas; and centralization, which refers to the concentration of
political power and authority among individuals or factions. “By analytically decoupling
these interacting processes we can achieve greater precision in our characterization of
ancient urbanism and greater insight into the processes responsible for its variability”
(Pool 2003:91). Similar in some respects to the Capital Zone Model (see Wells 2004b),
this version differs notably in the consideration of site size and spatial clustering.
Identifying criteria include:
1) Residential settlement, arranged in a concentric pattern extending outward
from a central core;
2) Formal architecture, temples, concentrated at several locations, composed of
conical mounds (temples) and long mounds (elite residences) surrounding
plazas;
3) Spacing, central plaza group surrounded by intensive occupational zone (180
ha) with additional plaza groups around the periphery of this habitation area;
4) Craft production, frequent small-scale domestically centered ceramic and lithic
production with little elite control.
39