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Author: * Ryurik Skotkonung -
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Date: Apr 4, 2006 - 15:26
The oldest permanent settlement in Mesoamerica is located along the shores of Lake Chalco in the southern part of the Valley of Mexico. The settlement is known as Zohapilco. Archaeologists have dated the site's earliest occupation to approximately 6000 BCE. This is known as the beginning of the Archaic and Early Formative periods [6000 BCE - 1200 BCE].
Why did these men and women give up their hunter-gatherer ways and live a sedentary lifestyle? Lake Chalco and the large amount of resources that it provided is the obvious answer. The lake provided the inhabitants of Zohapilco with several lacustrine* resources including: fish, aquatic birds, turtles, shellfish, lake grasses, and amphibians.
Christine Niederberger, an archaeologist with the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico was the major researcher of the site. The excavations found evidence of the use of hearths, chipped and ground stone tools, and flora [plant] and fauna [animal] remains. The ground stone tools were used in the processing of plant foods. Her finds point to this unusual lifestyle that showed people living a sedentary existence before the dawn of agriculture in the Valley of Mexico.
Main Source: Andrews, Anthony. First Cities. St. Remy Press: Montreal; 1995; pgs.101-102.
* Lacustrine means of or pertaining to lakes.
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Zohapilco [Intro]
Archaic & Pre-Classical Periods
(- threads, 14 posts)
Early settlements in the Valley
(5 posts)
