Huasteca

An area on the northeastern fringe of Mesoamerica in northern Veracruz and Tamaulipas provinces of Mexico and the Maya-speaking group that lived there. The people were hunter-gatherers and the area has an archaeological sequence from the Early Preclassic to the Aztec conquest and Spanish contact. The cultural climax of the Huasteca occurs in the Early Post-Classic. The largest of the Huasteca centers (Las Flores, Tamuin) contain only moderately sized pyramids surrounded by a number of housemounds. The monumental sculpture is of relatively poor quality. The hallmarks of the Huastec culture are structures on a round plan, a black-on-white hard paste pottery, and carved shell ornaments.

A native group centred on the northeastern fringes of Mesoamerica in northern Veracruz and Tamaulipas provinces of Mexico. Although MAYA-speaking, there is little evidence of cultural contact with the Maya after 1400 be. The major influences in the Classic Period were Veracruz (see El Tajio) and Teotihuacan, but the cultural climax of the Huasteca occurs in the Early Post-Classic. Characteristically, Huastec centres did not develop to the level of centres in other areas of Mesoamerica; the large village, typical of the Pre-Classic elsewhere, is the usual settlement pattern. The largest of the Huastec centres (at Las Flores and Tamuin) contain only moderately sized pyramids surrounded by a number of housemounds. The monumental sculpture, some with death imagery, is of relatively poor quality but there are some fine representations of Quetzacoatl. The hallmarks of the Huastec culture are structures on a round plan (a relative rarity in Mesoamerica), a black-on-white hard paste pottery, and carved shell ornaments. Apparently trading partners of the Aztec, the Huastec are potentially the most likely link between the cultures of Mesoamerica and the southeastern United States. There is, however, very little evidence of this, although carved shell ornaments of the Southern Cult bear a noticeable resemblance to those of the