archives@tulane.edu / This dissertation investigates the site of El Tesoro, Hidalgo, Mexico during the Early Classic period Chingú phase (A.D. 200-500). Archaeological evidence, including material culture and burials, has previously indicated that this site was settled by a group of people with affiliations both to Teotihuacan, in the Basin of Mexico, and the Valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec homeland in southern Mexico. I argue that the Chingú-phase occupation of El Tesoro is best understood as a creolized community of Zapo-Teotihuacanos that were likely related to members of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan who migrated into southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region. Evidence to support this argument comes from a variety of datasets presented herein, including: qualitative and quantitative analysis of ceramic attributes, artifact distribution and spatial patterning, ceramic compositional and provenance studies, and inter-site burial comparative analysis. Ceramic attribute analysis showed that El Tesoro’s potters recreated vessels from the Valley of Oaxaca, although with some divergence in style, and from Teotihuacan, but that they also created new, hybridized vessels that combined elements from both traditions. Artifact distribution maps indicated that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery overlapped throughout the site, suggesting that these vessels were used by the same people and in the same contexts, possibly side-by-side and interchangeably. X-ray diffraction and neutron activation analysis conducted on a sample of sherds recovered from surface collection at El Tesoro indicate that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery vessels were constructed on local clays, using similar past recipes. Finally, comparison between mortuary practices at El Tesoro and two locations in Teotihuacan, the Oaxaca Barrio and La Ventilla B, supported the results of the ceramic analysis, showing a hybridization of burial traditions at El Tesoro that replicated aspects of typical Teotihuacan and Zapotec burials, but in a novel way. Based on these datasets and analyses, I argue that the Chingú-phase population at El Tesoro should be considered a creolized group with affiliations both to Teotihuacan and the Valley of Oaxaca, and that they likely settled in southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region and are an offshoot population of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan. / 1 / Haley Holt Mehta