The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1 ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION 47

Figure 1.5 Locations of major Formative period sites.

The Early Formative Period.

The transition from the Archaic to the Formative periods was marked by the intro-

duction of fired ceramics and the growth of sedentary villages. Both domestication

and sedentism had existed in the Archaic period, but it was not until around 1800

B.C. that increased sedentism and the production of ceramics resulted in much more

substantial sites. These two trends are logically linked. It is simply not practical for

nomadic peoples to carry around ceramic pots, whereas sedentary peoples require

a large number of sturdy vessels for food storage, and fired clay pots serve this pur-

pose well.

Fired clay was also used to produce figurines—small images of persons, gods,

and animals. These figurines were used in rituals, and most have been recovered

from domestic contexts. Figurines from the Soconusco region of coastal Chiapas de-

pict old, seated individuals wearing masks and young women standing without clothes

(Figure 1.6). Figurine styles changed dramatically by the end of the Early Formative

to depict so-called Olmec “baby-face” individuals whose age and sex are ambiguous

(Figure 1.6).

The earliest documented pottery in Mesoamerica forms two traditions: the red-

on-buff tradition west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Locona tradition to the

east. Locona pottery proper is found along the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and

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