ABSTRACT
The extent to which La Sierra's artisans blanketed the Late Classic Naco Valley pottery market was in part addressed through instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramic and clay samples drawn from Late Classic sites throughout the basin, including the capital. Obsidian blades, on the other hand, were widely distributed throughout the Late Classic valley, strongly suggesting that people of every social station needed and used these implements. Life in the Late Classic Naco Valley looked quite different in 1991 than it had in 1979. Paramount elites moved effectively to exclude other valley denizens from participation in inter-societal transactions by making sure that they alone controlled the acquisition and fashioning of commodities prized by social leaders in other realms. Such discrepancies might have given rise to the occasional snide comment about the sophistication of the Naco Valley's denizens and their leaders.
