Resumen

CHAVEZ JIMENEZ, Ulises. Potonchán y Santa María de la Victoria: una propuesta geomorfológico/arqueológica a un problema histórico. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2007, vol.29, pp.103-139. ISSN 0185-2574.

One of the least known and explored zones in Tabasco is the coastal strip, which is found between the San Pedro and San Pablo River to the east, the border of Campeche to the west, and the Seco River to the north, near the Tupilco Bar. Interestingly, one of the most important archaeological problems in the area has been the identification of both Potonchan and Santa Maria de la Victoria. The study of both sites as seats of coordinated and specific geography and cartography has not been studied until now, with archaeology and history in a precise and multidisciplinary way. This is because, methodologically, the issue presents a difficult question to answer: To take earlier geographic descriptions literally with reference to modern geography, the actual location of both sites would be very difficult to determine, due to the many geomorphologic factors which have intervened, altering the relief formation in a determinate manner, since the sixteenth century until today. With respect to the coast of Tabasco, specifically in the Frontera region, one of the natural process of geomorphologic modification in a delta system, such as the Grijalva River. In September of 2002, with the expansion of the highway system in the state of Tabasco, a rescue excavation took place along the Villahermosa - Ciudad del Carmen highway. This rescue yielded a diversity of materials, of which the preliminary analysis of the ceramics revealed interesting information with respect to human development in the area through time, from at least the Early Preclassic until the Early Colonial periods.