Aurelio López is a researcher at the Tlaxcala center of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. He studied for his Ph.D. in the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University (2011). His research interests include the development of ancient agricultural systems in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region, the study of the domestic and institutional economy of the Pre-Hispanic peoples of central Mexico, and processes of change in indigenous land tenure systems in the Postclassic and Early Colonial periods. Today, he is Co-director of the Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala, Archaeological Project and a collaborator in the Tlalancaleca, Puebla, archaeological project. His recent publications include "Los glifos de suelo en códices Acolhua de la Colonia Temprana: un reanálisis de su significado" (Desacatos, 2011), "Tepeticpac: la arqueología del primer señorío de Tlaxcallan"(Jornadas de Antropología e Historia INAH, 2011), "El impacto de la canícula en poblaciones agrícolas de Tepeaca, siglo XVI" (Itinerarios, 2012), and "Terrazguero smallholders and the function of agricultural tribute in sixteenth-century Tepeaca, México"(Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 2012).