- Las Bocas
Las Bocas is a minor
archaeological site in theMexican state ofPuebla , whose name has become attached, often erroneously, to a wide-ranging type ofOlmec -style figurines and pottery.The Las Bocas site, part of the
Balsas River basin, was heavily plundered in the 1960's by looters looking for "Olmec" pottery and figurines. As the prestige associated with "Las Bocas" artifacts grew, that label was given to many similar artifacts – and occasional forgeries – of unknown origin. [Grove.] The high numbers of artifacts attributed to the site are "implausible at best", [Pool, p. 210, who states that the plunder of Las Bocas is "one of the most egregrious examples of looting in the annals ofMesoamerica n archaeology."] and as a result, the term "Las Bocas" has now little archaeological significance.The first systematic archaeological investigation of Las Bocas was begun by
David Grove in 1967. In 1997, the archaeologist Maria de la Cruz Paillés Hernández started the first of her three seasons at the site.Notes
References
*Grove, David C. (2000) "Bocas, Las (Puebla, Mexico)", in "Archaeology of Ancient Mexico & Central America: an Encyclopedia"; Routledge, London.
*Paillés Hernández, Maria de la Cruz; " [http://www.famsi.org/reports/99041/index.html Las Bocas, Puebla, Archaeological Project] ", [http://www.famsi.org/ Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.] , accessed March 2007.
*Pool, Christopher (2007) "Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica", Cambridge University Press.External links
* [http://www.famsi.org/reports/99041/section15.htm Photos from Maria de la Cruz Paillés Hernández.]
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