Staple food preparation at Teotihuacan
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Staple food preparation at Teotihuacan Martin Biskowski 1
Received: 8 April 2016 / Accepted: 6 October 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Like studies of craft production, research on food production has significant implications for understanding the economic organization of past societies. This paper highlights the tools of maize (Zea mays) processing and cooking as a constructive avenue to examine aspects of food production at Teotihuacan during the Terminal Formative and Classic Periods (100 BC–AD 650). By analyzing the spatial distribution of comales, metates and manos recovered from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project, this study investigates the notion that edible maize products were produced through specialized labor. Two notable patterns are observed. First, the aggregation of comales along the Street of the Dead during the Miccaotli phase (AD 100–170) suggests that tortilla preparation fueled large public work projects, feeding the workers, their families, and other dependents of the state. Secondly, the spatial aggregation of grinding stones, manos and comales in seven concentrated areas within the Classic Period (AD 170– 650) occupation of the city suggest that several apartment compounds, possibly entire barrios, may have specialized in the production of tortillas and other finished maize foods for exchange. Such a pattern may have resulted from the costly labor and materials required for the production of tortillas, favoring economies of scale. Several areas within the city conspicuously possessing low frequencies of maize processing artifacts suggest that some sectors were dependent on specialized labor from outside the household for daily needs. Together, these data suggest that food production was a
* Martin Biskowski [email protected] 1
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, MND 4010, Sacramento, CA 95819-6106, USA
specialized activity at Teotihuacan and increase our understanding of the economic organization of the ancient metropolis. Keywords Maize . Staple . Grinding stone . Teotihuacan . Specialized production
Introduction This paper examines evidence for the emergence of specialized maize preparation at Teotihuacan during the Classic Period (AD 200–600). Of course, food preparation differs from craft production in fundamental ways, but many practical linkages at Teotihuacan and elsewhere tie the two kinds of specialization together. For example, specialization in food preparation often develops under the same push and pull influences as specialized craft production: a meager income, access to key resources less available to others, and a steady, predictable demand for the product in question. Thus, the examination of specialization in food preparation allows archeologists to investigate many of the same questions addressed by studies of craft specialization—providing essentially a new channel in a broadband approach to specialization research. For several years, Mesoamerican archeologists (e.g., Clark an
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