ALTICA, COAPEXCO, AND THE ROLE OF MIDDLEMEN IN FORMATIVE OBSIDIAN EXCHANGE

Altica's location in the Patlachique Range, 10 km away from the Otumba obsidian source, suggests its potential role in the distribution of Otumba obsidian. Altica may have been an important Formative middleman and processing site for obsidian exchange within the Basin of Mexico. To the south, Coapexco's position along a natural, restricted inlet to the Basin of Mexico may have enabled it to function as a node for pooling and distributing material into the Basin. This paper combines geochemical sourcing and technological data drawn from several Early and Middle Formative obsidian assemblages to reconstruct the movement of obsidian in this period to identify obsidian sources and consumption sites. In doing so, the paper assesses the role that intermediary sites like Altica and Coapexco could have played in the processing and distribution of obsidian into more distant consumption sites.