Archaeological methods extend beyond excavations and their analysis and interpretation. This dissertation uses an artifact-based approach to understand the culture of the Tlatilco community who lived in the Basin of Mexico 3000 years ago. I use the many collections of artifacts found in museums across the United States to better understand Tlatilco and relate my findings to the existing archaeological record where it exists. Wherever there are written records available from the archaeological field seasons, I have related museum artifact findings to the knowledge gained from these.

The ancient site of the Tlatilco was heavily looted prior to systematic archaeological excavation and has therefore, I assert, never received the academic attention it deserves. A chance encounter with Tlatilco artifacts that had been in storage and uncurated in a museum moved me to change the course of my Mesoamerican research and provided the foundation for this dissertation. Building on the objects in that collection and many other collections, I aim to understand the identities of the population of Tlatilco. Dating to the Early Formative period (1400-1100 BCE, calibrated), Tlatilco had extensive contact with its contemporaries, which is evident in its ceramic variability and other ritual traditions known from the burial records. The questions I address revolve around the sociopolitical transformation of the Early Formative period as experienced by Tlatilco as we start to see a rise in the civilizations in Mesoamerica and communities that develop to new levels as the complexity broadened.

Through comparative analysis of the mainly ceramic Tlatilco objects including figurines, vessels, masks, roller stamps and seals, as well musical instruments, I have identified local trends as well as unique occurrences. I relate these findings to the social dynamic of Early Formative Mesoamerica in relation to Tlatilco culture and what can be inferred about their customs and practices. This dissertation also addresses the ongoing debate about incorporation of objects without provenance, including the ethics behind excluding the material, as well as methods available to potentially establish provenance.