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You have now read about isotope analysis, and you understand what it can tell us about
patterns of migration and so on. Today you will analyze and interpret some of that data
using a case study at Teotihuacan. See the powerpoint in the activity folder for maps and
photographs of relevance to these data.
Teotihuacan, in highland Mexico, is the earliest and largest pre-Hispanic city in the New
World and was occupied between 1-650 AD, a number of centuries before the rise of the
Aztecs in the same region, just to the south. The city has been extensively excavated and
studied, and these projects have revealed that there are many distinctive areas within the
city limits, including major ceremonial precincts, large pyramids and temples, residential
areas, exchange sectors, thousands of residential compounds, and tunnels under the
northern half of the city. One of these residential compounds, called the Oaxaca Barrio,
contain non-local architecture, artifacts, and burial arrangements that resemble those from
the site of Monte Albn. However, the identity of these residents has remained uncertain.
Were these local people who adopted foreign customs, were they recent immigrants to the
city, or were they a mix of locals and outsiders?
To address this question, scholars have turned to isotope studies. They measured
strontium isotope ratios in human bone and tooth enamel from individuals buried in
various parts of the city to get information on where they were born. As you have read
about, strontium isotope ratios are signatures for local geologies. Strontium in human bone
and tooth enamel comes from the food growing in local geologies. Since bone remodels
continuously throughout a persons lifetime, strontium isotope ratios in human bone
reflect the source of a diet around the time of death, giving a general snapshot from the last
10 years or so of the individuals life, depending on the bone sampled. Strontium ratios in
tooth enamel reflect the source of the diet in childhoodwhen that tooth was forming.
Differences between enamel and bone ratios in the same individual indicate that there was
a change in residence between those time periods. One can determine whether someone
was entirely local, or if they had moved there after childhood, or even if they had very
recently arrived and had spent the vast majority of their life elsewhere.
Scholars analyzed samples of eight modern and prehistoric rabbit bones found in tunnels
underneath the city in order to provide a baseline for local values. They also sampled tooth
and bone from five individuals (ten samples total) from adults from Monte Albn in order
to determine a Oaxaca signature. Finally, they analyzed samples of teeth and bone from
twelve individuals from two neighborhoods at Teotihuacn: first, from the Oztoyahualco
neighborhood thought to be composed of entirely local residents, and second, from the
Oaxaca Barrio. These data are available to you in an excel spreadsheet. Note: Samples 9a
and 9b, for example, are two different samples from the same individual (tooth and bone).
For this activity, you will analyze the data and interpret them to address the following
questions: 1) Was the Oaxaca Barrio was occupied by local people who adopted Oaxacan
style material culture, or were they recent immigrants to the city, or were they a mix of
locals or outsiders. If it is the latter, are there more foreigners than in the local
neighborhood? 2) What does this allow us to say about neighborhood populations at
Teotihuacan and broader population dynamics in central Mexico during this time period?
3) Finally, what other lines of evidence might you draw on to shed more light on these
questions?
In your discussion post, include your answers to those three questions, as well as the
results of your analysis: your range of values for the local Teotihuacan baseline and the
foreign signature, along with your determination of foreign or locally born for each
individual from both neighborhoods.
Tip to get started: I recommend determining the range of variation encompassed by the
rabbit samples (to characterize the local Teotihuacan baseline), then determine the range
of variation encompassed by the Monte Alban samples (to characterize the foreign
signature). Then identify each archaeological sample for both Teotihuacan neighborhoods
as either foreign-born or locally-born by comparing the values to the local Teotihuacan
baseline and foreign signatures you just determined, and then consider the number of each
in each neighborhood. One way to do that is to visually represent the data through a bar
graph, where the Y axis is the Strontium ratios and each of the bars represent all of the
samples (teeth and bone for each individual, if they are available).