News from the Field 2023 her research region on behalf of her community partners. She released a co-edited volume, Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands: Archaeological Perspectives, on historical archaeology and cultural heritage work in the region (published with the University Press of Colorado). Three archaeology graduate students are conducting their doctoral dissertation fieldwork projects in Oaxaca: Joseph Wardle has begun his excavations at Cerro Danilín, an archaeological site in the Valley of Oaxaca. His work, funded in part by a Fulbright-Hays DDRA, explores warfare, defense, and the rise and fall of the Zapotec state. Soren Frykholm began his dissertation project by directing his first round of excavations at the key site of Monte Negro in western Oaxaca. He plans another excavation season in 2024. This past spring Jennifer Larios finished her second season of excavations at the Early Postclassic occupation at Jalieza. She conducted excavations on three domestic terraces on the slopes of the site. Since finishing excavations, Jennifer has been washing ceramics and creating a detailed inventory of the materials from her last two seasons. She plans to return to Jalieza for one final season of excavations before she writes her dissertation. Curator Kent Flannery and his collaborator, Professor Frank Hole of Yale University, are working with UMMAA Press to publish their site report on Gheo-Shih, an Archaic site in the Valley of Oaxaca. Gheo-Shih was a 1.5 hectare “macroband” camp near the Mitla River, repeatedly occupied in the summer rainy season during the period (cal.) 7500–4000 BC; it may have been occupied by 25–50 people. At other times of the year the local population
Joseph Wardle in Oaxaca, viewing the valley floor from Cerro Danilín.
dispersed in smaller, family-sized groups, occupying “microband” camps in caves and rockshelters. The available macrofossil and palynological data suggest that between 5000 and 4000 BC they were cultivating maize, squash, gourds, and (possibly) runner beans, while continuing to collect wild plants and hunt deer, rabbit, and mud turtle.
Soren Frykholm at Monte Negro in Oaxaca, collecting lime floor samples for residue analysis.
www.lsa.umich.edu/ummaa • Fall 2023 • page 19
