Built Environment, Spatiality and Socio-Political Organization at the Site of Teteles de Santo Nombre, Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

stract: Teteles de Santo Nombre is a monumental pre-Hispanic settlement located in the Tehuacán Valley, in the southeast of the state of Puebla, Mexico. Recent archaeological research indicates that for the Classic period (200-650 AD), the built-up environment at the site’s epicenter presented a nucleated arrangement with the predominance of groups of closed courtyards. This work addressed the analysis of the built-up environment in Teteles de Santo Nombre because of social practice and as an indicator of the political strategies adopted by local elites. Using spatial analysis tools within a GIS environment, we evaluated the conditions of accessibility and visibility to ascertain the possibilities of interaction and political integration offered by the built environment. The results show that in Teteles de Santo Nombre a spatial arrangement that restricted the interaction between social actors and that responded to exclusionary behaviors, allowed the evaluation of some of the possible strategies followed by political actors for the Classic period, particularly the local adoption of certain material features from interregional contacts with settlements as Teotihuacan.