Settlement and Subsistence in Early Formative Soconusco: El Varal and the Problem of Inter-Site Assemblage Variation

This volume volume sets archaeological excavations at a special-propose estuary site in coastal Chiapas, Mexico, into the larger anthropological context of the origins of agriculture and sedentary life in ancient Mesoamerica. The site of El Varal is located in the Soconusco region, a narrow strip of the Pacific coast of Chiapas and neighboring Guatemala that is sharply defined inland by the rise of the Sierra Madre escarpment. The diverse biotic zones of the area run in strips parallel to the oc…