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Armillas, Pedro. 1981. "Gardens on Swamps" in Ancient Mesoamerica: Selected Readings. Ed. J.A. Graham. Pp. 117-130. Palo Alto, CA: Peek Publication.

In 1970, Armillas tested ground near Tlatenco and found that Chinampas agriculture preceded the Classic period in the Basin of Mexico. He postulates that chinampas do not appear as widespread in Classic Teotihuacan as in later Aztec times because water level rose in the lake to restrict marshlands needed for chinampas building. Chinampas are built with sod to form "floating islands" for intensive maize cultivation. Seepage from the surrounding lake water keeps the soil moist. Farmers tend the fields from boats, adding muck and night soil for fertilizer. Most of Armillas report is concerned with intensive agriculture production of the Aztecs.

Blanton, Richard E., S. A. Kowalewski, G. Feinman, J. Appel. 1981. Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A concise recounting of the Valley of Oaxaca, Valley of Mexico, and the eastern lowlands. Blanton sees obsidian production as primarily a residential, perhaps familial, affair and that the obsidian work in public places may represent "a kind of tax by working in these 'state shops'". He feels certain that there was not state control of obsidian production based upon the small amount of obsidian found in association with public buildings. He sees the state as involved in "mining and distribution of the raw materials" and protecting the city's industries by restricting manufacture in outlying areas. Teotihuacan was the most important exporter of obsidian in the highlands and perhaps in Mesoamerica as evidenced in Kaminaljuyu. The city's economic dominance is based upon craft specialization, the 600 obsidian workshops.

Charlton, Thomas. 1984. "Production and Exchange; Variables in the Evolution of a Civilization" in Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica, ed by K.G. Hirth. Pp. 17-42. Albuquerque: University of Mexico Press.

Charlton shows the transfer of obsidian mining by households in the Early Formative to centralized control by the Late Formative. He believes that Teotihuacan was the first political unit to control production and exchange of obsidian in the Valley of Mexico. In contrast to Blanton, he believes that the state was directly involved in obsidian production "with centralized and decentralized factory workshops that fed products into the exchange system". He says nonagricultural production should be considered when in determining an areas rise to complexity.

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