Common salt, or sodium chloride, has always been a strategic resource of primary importance throughout the world. In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, salt was used primarily for human consumption, as the native diet had little chloride or sodium, two chemical components that are indispensable for human health and nutrition. Here I discuss the traditional salt industries of Michoacán, Colima, Guerrero, the Basin of Mexico and Puebla, paying special attention to the production sites and the tool assemblages linked to salt production in these areas of Mesoamerica. This article sheds light on salt's role in the culture and history of the ancient Mesoamerican ecumene through the lens of ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory.

Systematic flotation survey and spatial analysis of artifacts at the submerged salt work of Ek Way Nal reveal evidence of a residence, salt kitchens, and additional activities. Ek Way Nal is one of 110 salt works associated with a Late to Terminal Classic (A.D. 600–900) salt industry known as the Paynes Creek Salt Works. Wooden posts that form the walls of 10 buildings are remarkably preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor providing an opportunity to examine surface artifacts in relation to buildings. Numerous salt kitchens have been located at the Paynes Creek Salt Works by evidence of abundant briquetage—pottery associated with boiling brine over fires to make salt. As one of the largest salt works with 10 buildings, there is an opportunity to examine variability in building use. Systematic flotation survey over the site and flagging and mapping individual artifacts and posts provide evidence that the Ek Way Nal salt makers had a residence near the salt kitchens, along with evidence of salting fish for subsistence or surplus household production. The results are compared with ethnographic evidence from Sacapulas and other salt works.

This article presents the ceramic sequence and chronology resulting from a multi-year program of survey, excavation, and analysis of pre-Hispanic settlement and exploitation within the Zinapécuaro-Ucareo (“U-Z”), Michoacan obsidian source area. Pottery analysis and classification aided by seriation analysis identified nine ceramic complexes and seven ceramic phases and sub-phases that both expand and refine the ceramic sequence previously established for the region by Gorenstein's (1985) investigations at nearby Acámbaro, Guanajuato. Initially established by ceramic cross-dating, the U-Z ceramic chronology has been largely confirmed by 30 radiocarbon dates and spans over 2,000 years of pre-Hispanic settlement, which included at least two notable episodes of trait-unit and site-unit intrusion from the eastern El Bajío and central Mexico. One of these episodes involved the appearance of two enclaves settled by individuals from the Acambay valley c. 90 km to the East, most likely from the site of Huamango, which our data indicate would have been occupied during the Middle Postclassic period.

This article explores the symbolism of the petate in light of an unprecedented archaeological discovery. Excavations carried out in a Classic context in northern Michoacán revealed the impression of a petate marking the location of a burial. In addition, the lower section of the burial pit was covered over with andesite slabs, including one with grid-like and spiral incisions. After a brief overview of the ancient and modern uses of the petate and relevant archaeological evidence, I present the data that allow the testing of different hypotheses, in particular the symbolization of power through the petate. Contextual analysis suggests that both the woven mat and the incised slab served as thresholds, if not barriers, between the world of the living and the underworld. I propose that the petate was placed over the grave to serve as a regulator, ensuring that entities were properly separated and that they remained in their respective places. As such, it was an object protecting the cosmic order. I further suggest that the petate may have acted as a temporal gate, guaranteeing the continuous exercise of authority and argue that it was, as a finished object, endowed with power.

The system of communication in use in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest was made up of signs composed largely of pictorial elements, including glyphs (signs in a script) and graphic representations of the ornaments of the deities. It had a generative character that was expressed mainly in the fact that it combined basic signs to create new meanings. This article deals with the combinations between the following signs: the smoking mirror, the flint, the down ball and the skull, all belonging to the field of sacrifice and dismemberment of the human body. They were associated with each other and created the following codified and conventional combinations: mirror-flint, mirror-down, flint-skull, flint-obsidian, skull-down, and a composite pectoral called anahuatl. This article proposes a typology of these combinations, and sheds light on their meanings and the processes of their construction.

The island nature of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, is an under-studied aspect in our understanding of this unique urban space, located in the Mexican highlands of Mesoamerica. The island location induces cross-links from aquatic and terrestrial paths to create connectivity and continuity within the lacustrine cultural landscape of the Basin of Mexico during the Postclassic period (a.d. 900–1521). Although Cortés described this city as the “Venice of the New World,” no specific and systematic investigation of facilities related to water transport has been carried out. In this article, I fill this gap through a study of navigation routes which were conceived to facilitate the continuous movement of people and goods through the numerous canals crisscrossing the Aztec capital, and which are identifiable by means of anthropic markers that respond to functional needs. Transition zones (piers, quays, shoreline areas), coordination zones (ports), and activity zones (customs facilities, warehouses, bridges, sacred sites) are all related to the practice of water transport and intimately related to terrestrial roads. I identify and locate these areas using a multidisciplinary methodology based on archaeological data, ethnohistorical testimonies, and pictographic and iconographic documents.

Recent in-depth research on the Nahua Corpus Xolotl, as well as on a large variety of compatible sources, has led to new insights on what were “boundaries” in preconquest Nahua thought. The present article proposes that our modern Western concept of borders and political boundaries was foreign to ancient Mexican societies and to Aztec-era polities in general. Consequently, the article aims to add a novel angle to our understanding of the notions of space, territoriality, and limits in the indigenous worldview in central Mexico during preconquest times, and their repercussions for the internal social and political relations that evolved within the Nahua-Acolhua ethnic states (altepetl). Furthermore, taking its cue from the Corpus Xolotl, the article reconsiders the validity of ethnic entities and polities in ancient Mexico and claims that many of these polities were ethnic and territorial amalgams, in which components of ethnic outsiders formed internal enclaves and powerbases. I argue that in ancient Mexico one is able to observe yet another kind of conceptualization of borders/frontiers: “enclosures with inclusion,” which served as the indigenous concept of porous and inclusive boundaries, well up to the era of the formation of the so-called Triple Alliance, and beyond.

In seeking continuities and disjuncture from the precedents of past authorities, the Mesoamerican emergent ruling class during the Formative period were active agents in directing changes to monumental space, suggesting that memory played a vital role in developing an early shared character of Maya lifeways (1000 b.c. to a.d. 250). The trend is most visible in the civic ceremonial complexes known as E Groups, which tend to show significant patterns of continuity (remembering) and disjuncture (forgetting). This article uses the northern lowland site of Yaxuná in Yucatan, Mexico, to demonstrate the use of early selective strategies to direct collective memory. While there are E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands, few Formative period examples are known, making Yaxuná a critical case study for comparative assessment with the southern lowlands. One implication of the Yaxuná data is that the broader pattern of Middle Formative E Groups resulted from sustained social, religious, political, and economic interaction between diverse peer groups across eastern Mesoamerica. With the emergence of institutionalized rulership in the Maya lowlands during the Late Formative, local authorities played a significant role in directing transformations of E Groups, selectively influencing their meanings and increasingly independent trajectories through continuity and disjuncture.

In this article we analyze the content and form of 58 stone monuments at the archaeological site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas, Mexico, which recent research confirms was a capital of the Classic Maya polity Sak Tz'i' (“White Dog”). Sak Tz'i' kings carried the title ajaw (“lord”) rather than the epithet k'uhul ajaw (“holy lord”) claimed by regional powers, implying that Sak Tz'i' was a lesser kingdom in terms of political authority. Lacanjá Tzeltal's corpus of sculptured stone, however, is explicitly divergent and indicates the community's marked cultural autonomy from other western Maya kingdoms. The sculptures demonstrate similarities with their neighbors in terms of form and iconographic and hieroglyphic content, underscoring Lacanjá Tzeltal artisans’ participation in the region's broader culture of monumental production. Nevertheless, sculptural experimentations demonstrate not only that lesser courts like Lacanjá Tzeltal were centers of innovation, but that the lords of Sak Tz'i' may have fostered such cultural distinction to underscore their independent political character. This study has broader implications for understanding interactions between major and secondary polities, artistic innovation, and the development of community identity in the Classic Maya world.

Across many decades of Maya archaeology, the study of war has typically been focused on its geopolitical, systemic, evolutionary, and structural implications. We argue these approaches stand to benefit from deeper interrogations of practice. Such a perspective shifts scholarly attention toward the ways in which Maya peoples prepared for and engaged in combat, and how they administered the outcomes of war. Deploying this approach requires the study of tactics, strategy, fortifications, materiel, landscape, embodiment, and a host of other related factors. With the issue of practice at the forefront of our analysis, we demonstrate how the study of war has been “blackboxed” in Maya archaeology, then undertake a comparative analysis to highlight how digging into the details of past martial practice enriches debates in Mesoamerican studies regarding the role of war in the rise and disintegration of states.

Although studies of warfare are now common in Maya archaeology, much remains to be learned about strategy, tactics, and various other practical factors in the process of making war. An emphasis on the concrete and practical is necessary to both acknowledge agency and understand how conflict relates to the human experience. Through an examination of documentary and archaeological data in a comparative framework, I elaborate on practices of Maya fortification construction and how the creation of a martial landscape ties into relations of power during the Late Postclassic/Early Spanish Colonial period (a.d. 1200–1600). During this period, in the region of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, Maya peoples fortified a peninsula according to principles of defense-in-depth. In other words, they created layers of fortification to slow and stall an attack. My analysis reveals how the creation of a martial landscape shaped local culture by incorporating elements of sacred geography and ritual landscape to perpetuate social inequality.

In the absence of historical records, ethnography, or artistic depictions, fortifications provide one of the best forms of evidence for insight into the nature of warfare within past societies. Excavations into the monumental stone perimeter wall, 1.5 km in circumference, at Muralla de León in the Peten Lakes Region have dated its initial construction to the first two centuries of the Late Preclassic period (400–200 b.c.). Investigation into this apparent fortification offers new insight into Maya settlement and monumental construction in relation to warfare in this era, as sociopolitical complexity became increasingly widespread across the southern lowlands. Calculations of affordances of movement across the local landscape using geographic information systems and Circuitscape inform a spatial statistical analysis of fortification at Muralla de León, performed to test a hypothesis of defensive functionality for the encircling perimeter wall. A separate affordance of movement analysis at a regional scale locates the site within probable intersite paths of travel. The research indicates a significant, but not exclusive, defensive intent underpinning the Preclassic form of the main wall system. Thus, the system was built in part as a fortification, restricting movement toward the interior, while facilitating other uses such as hydraulic control and possibly trade.

A careful reading of the battle in the Bonampak murals offers new insights into eighth-century strategies for warfare, and the importance of overwhelming force in both aggression and deterrence. These same two strategies were critical during the Spanish invasion, especially in defense of freshwater resources. The murals of Bonampak provide insights into the Maya battle, including the emphasis on teamwork in execution of battle tactics and the seemingly contradictory emphasis on the individual, in terms of hieroglyphics. Despite exhaustive study of the paintings, the potential consideration of color-defined and pattern shields also may reveal groupings of warriors previously unrecognized in both battle and presentation of captives. Sixteenth-century accounts by Spanish invaders confirm a practice that includes defense of water sources along the coast of Yucatan, with details that can be evaluated regarding eighth-century Maya practice.

Traditional interpretations of Maya warfare have focused on the ritual aspects of war, including the necessity of taking captives for sacrifice. Captives are a common theme on carved stone monuments in the Late Classic period, and images like the murals at Bonampak suggest that captives taken in battle were ultimately sacrificed. Textual information from hieroglyphs and historical records, however, suggests a variety of fates for prisoners of war. Considering this information, the iconography of carved stone monuments is a poor indicator of historical outcomes for captives. What, then, was the function of captive imagery? In this article, I suggest that images of captives on carved stone monuments worked to prepare elite viewers for warfare by creating embodied social identities for warriors. Sculptures constructed a warrior identity that encompassed both victor and victim and emphasized the importance of elite bodies in the maintenance of political and ritual power. Understanding the ways in which images of captives were communicating allows a more robust view of how the practice of warfare differed from polity to polity and suggests that context is key to using art to learn about war.

Archaeological studies worldwide have revealed a wide range of cultural contexts within which practices of violence and warfare have occurred. In Mesoamerica, ongoing studies have enriched our understanding of social contexts of violence and warfare in Maya societies. This expanding body of field data allows deeper exploration of the ways violence was intricately linked to different aspects of cultural life for many Maya communities. In this article, we contemplate the culturally embedded nature of violence and warfare with a specific focus on the Classic period and questions related to political strategy, ritual practices, and total warfare. We provide empirical frameworks for the study of war to address issues of ritual warfare and societal impact, and we emphasize a regional scale of analysis.