Nichols, Deborah

6047 Silsby Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Phone: 603-646-3033
Fax: 603-646-1140
deborah.l.nichols at dartmouth.edu

My current research on the development of early cities and states in Mesoamerica focuses on the nature of Teotihuacan's relations with its hinterlands and the change from the regional Teotihuacan state system to the very different city-states of the Postclassic, the subject of my earlier investigations.

The great ancient city of Teotihuacan, in highland central Mexico, has been extensively studied, but even today surprisingly little is known about other Teotihuacan-related settlements in and near the Basin of Mexico.  Cerro Portezuelo, about 40 km from Teotihuacan, in the eastern Basin, is one of only two major Teotihuacan regional centers in the Basin (the other is Azcapotzalco, in the western Basin.)  After Teotihuacan's fall, occupation continued in the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic periods, when Cerro Portezuelo became the capital of one of the city-states into which the Basin was then divided.  It is exceptionally strategic because it offers data on how Teotihuacan interacted at its height with subordinate centers within its core area, and because it provides a record of the cultural, political, economic, religious, and possibly ethnic changes involved in the decline and collapse of the Teotihuacan state and ensuing developments in the Basin of Mexico.  This transition is still poorly understood and is the subject of much controversy.

With support from the National Science Foundation, and the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, and Goodman Fund at Dartmouth, George Cowgill (Arizona State University) and I, along with a team of archaeologists and other scientists from Canada, Mexico, and the US, are analyzing the artifacts and excavation and survey data from Cerro Portezuelo.

A thread of my research concerns craft specialization, exchange, and political economy in the development of early states and cities. Working with Christina Elson, and specialists from the American Museum of Natural History and the Missouri University Research Reactor Archaeometry Program, we drew on data from George Valliant's early excavations at the site of Chiconautla Mexico http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/research/aztec.htm. We wanted to understand the settlement's growth as it became an important Aztec trade center on the shores of Late Texcoco in the Basin of Mexico and examine it in light of models about the role of economics and politics in the development of early state commerce.

Working on a broader front, Christopher Pool of the University of Kentucky and I are editing a new Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology as part of series to be published by Oxford University Press. The handbook will include topical and regional articles on current research written by leading scholars from both North America and Latin America.

Publishing and scholarly peer review are critical to scholarship and the world of scientific and scholarly publication is undergoing significant change as the electronic age offers new opportunities and poses new challenges. Following the 2009 Annual Meeting for the American Anthropological Association, I will chair its Committee on the Future of Print and Electronic publishing. http://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/CFPEP.cfm.

Selected Recent Publications

• Nichols, D. L. C. Elson, L. G. Cecil, N, Neivens de Estrada, M. D. Glascock, and P. Mikkelson 2009 Chiconautla, Mexico: A Crossroads of Aztec Trade and Politics. Latin American Antiquity.
• Nichols, D. 2008 Artisans, Markets, and Merchants. In The Aztecs. Gary M. Feinman and Elizabeth M. Brumfiel, eds. pp. 105–120. Abrams, New York.
• Crown, P. L. Crown and D. L. Nichols and D. L. Nichols 2008 Introduction. In Multidisciplinary Approaches to Social Violence in the Prehispanic Southwest, edited by Deborah L. Nichols and Patricia L. Crown, pp. 1–6. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ()
• Charlton, T. H. C. O. Charlton, H. Neff, and D. L. Nichol 2008 Aztec Otumba: AD 1200–1600: Patterns of Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Pottery. In Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica: Integrated Approaches, edited by Christopher Pool and George Bey III, pp. 237–266. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. (Ts)
• Nichols D. L., R. Alan Covey, and K. Abdi). 2008 Rise of Civilization and Urbanism. In Encyclopedia of Archaeology, edited by Deborah Pearsall, pp. 1003–1015. Elsevier, Oxford. (
• Nichols, D. L. 2007 Results of the Archaeological Investigations of a Prehispanic Irrigation System Near Santa Clara Coatitlan, Mexico. In Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Cuautitlan Region, Mexico, edited by William T. Sanders and L. J. Gorenflo, pp. 317–326. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 29 Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
• Crider D. , D. L. Nichols, H. Neff, and M. D. Glascock 2007 In the Aftermath of Teotihuacan: Epiclassic Pottery Production and Distribution in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 18: 123–143.
• Nichols D. L., C. D. Frederick, L. Morett Alatorre, and F. Sánchez Martínez 2006 Water Management and Political Economy in Formative Period Central Mexico. In Ritual Water Management, edited by Lisa Lucero and Barbara Fash, pp. 51–66. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
• Nichols, D. L. 2006 Preindustrial Cities: Demographic Shining Stars or Black Holes? In Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches, edited by Glenn R. Storey, pp. 330–340. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
• Nichols, D. L. 2006 Archaeology on Foot: Jeffrey Parsons and Anthropology at the University of Michigan. In Retrospectives: Works and Lives of Michigan Anthropologists, edited by Derek Brereton, pp. 106–135. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology Vol. 16. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
• Charlton. T. H. and D. L. Nichols 2005 Settlement Pattern Archaeology in the Teotihuacan Valley and the Northeastern Basin of Mexico A. P. (After Parsons). In Settlement and Subsistence in Early Civilizations: Essays Reflecting the Contributions of Jeffrey R. Parsons, edited by Richard E. Blanton, pp. 43–62, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.
• Nichols, D. L. 2005 Chinampas. Calliope 16 (4): 12–13.
• Nichols, D. L. 2005 Tenochtitlan, Calliope 16 (4): 8–12.