Apupato Survey
Hey all, the Apupato survey is progressing well. In just a few days of work we have found several hundred terraces and at least 25 intact house mounds, room blocks, and other structures - this is in addition to several large sites around the base of the island on the prehistoric lake shore.
In addition we have Prehispanic sherds within the terraces, and on structures superimposed over them.
I’ll get some photos and other info up in the next week as I have time
Merry Xmas, we’ll be looking for Santa out on the former island.
Chris
Aztec Truffles
Tasty looking but pricey - think they can make some from tlacatlaolli??
2006 Lake Pátzcuaro informe
You can download our 2006 informe here
Apupato Survey
We are headed back to Apupato for winter break for a full coverage survey including terrace mapping.
Apupato today
Apupato is a former island that has long been thought to be an important prehistoric location, most notably as the site of one of the royal Purepecha (Tarascan) treasuries, but it has never been investigated. During the summer of 2006 a short reconnaissance of Cerro Apupato yielded evidence for at least one large settlement (~30 ha), agricultural terraces, platforms and room blocks on the summit that may be the remains of the treasury, and paleo-shorelines (strand-lines).
Ancient agricultural terraces on Apupato
For most of the post-contact period Apupato existed as an island limiting accessibility and serving to preserve the Prehispanic landscape to a much higher degree then the heavily impacted/eroded terrestrial portions of the Lake Basin. Thus Apupato can serve as an analog demonstrating the form and function of land-use and settlement in the region at the time of European contact (~A.D. 1520).
Ancient landscape features on Apupato
We hope to leave just after classes end, and return just before classes begin!!
You can help support this project by clicking here
Gordon R. Willey Award
Hello Everyone. I’m proud to announce that I have just won the Gordon R. Willey award for my American Anthropologist paper “C. Fisher 2005 Abandoning the Garden: Demographic and Landscape Change in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Mexico. American Anthropologist 107(1): 87-95.
You can read more and about the award in the section below!!
