The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a critical convergence zone of political and cultural interaction. This paper synthesizes archaeological research by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal to underscore the ways in which this provincial polity, identified epigraphically as K'anwitznal, maneuvered within and between different cultural affiliations and political networks. We find that the site's role as a political frontier during the Late Classic period was more of a bridge than an edge. During the later Terminal Classic period, the K'anwitznal kingdom gained independence, but continued to serve as a critical convergence of influences and interaction spheres from throughout the Maya area and beyond.

Burnt lime has played a significant role in daily Maya life since at least as far back as 1100 b.c., and yet its ephemeral nature has limited archaeological studies of its production. The application of new surveying and remote sensing technologies in recent decades is now allowing for a more in-depth investigation of the burnt lime industries that existed in different subregions of the Maya area. This article provides an overview of the current understanding of pre-Hispanic Maya burnt lime production. It then presents an analysis of the factors influencing the development and identification of distinct subregional lime production industries, including: lime consumption requirements and inter-site spacing; natural environment; local social and economic trajectories; and the objectives and survey universes of archaeological investigations. In reporting the tremendous advances made over the past few decades, this paper encourages archaeologists to include a focus on identifying lime production features in their research agendas.

During the years 2000 and 2001, a project was carried out to determine the paleoclimate in the Valley of Guatemala. There were two main objectives: (1) to compare and contrast the Highland data with that already obtained from the Maya Lowlands and the Caribbean region; and (2) to understand the relationship between climate and the disappearance of lakes and irrigated agriculture at the archaeological site of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala. Sediment cores have been recovered from Lake Amatitlan and the extinct Lake Miraflores associated with Kaminaljuyu. The samples have been transported to the United States for radiocarbon dating and for analysis of microfossils and pollen content. The paper summarizes the work and the results of the analysis obtained to the present.

This article presents a study of ceramic production in San Marcos Acteopan, a small village in the southern part of the state of Puebla, Mexico. Field observation and interviews with the families of two potters document the different steps of the ceramic production process. The approach is ethnographic and aims at better understanding ancient ceramic production. Special emphasis is given to raw material acquisition and paste preparation to provide comparative data for analysis of archaeological material and clay preparation strategies. This study adopts the perspective of ceramic ecology, which situates the information on ceramic production in environmental and socioeconomic contexts.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, the main locus of metal production in Mesoamerica was the Tarascan region of western Mexico. Scholars have argued that mining and metallurgy evolved into a state industry, as metal adornments used as insignias of social status and public ritual became closely associated with political control. In spite of its importance, however, Tarascan metallurgy is poorly documented. The extractive processes involved and the organization of the different aspects of this production are virtually unknown. Numerous questions arise from the notion that metal items functioned as wealth finance in the economy of the Tarascan state of Late Postclassic period Michoacan. Foremost among these is whether and how wealth was produced and controlled by the central power. This paper combines archaeological and ethnohistorical data to propose a model for pre-Hispanic copper production among the Tarascans. The goal of this analysis is to gain insights into the nature of metal production and its role in the major state apparatus. This will also provide clues to a better understanding of the development of technology and political economy in ancient Mesoamerica.

This work addresses varying interpretations of the production, circulation, and consumption of jades in the Maya area from the Preclassic through the Postclassic periods (600 b.c.–a.d. 1697). Traditionally, exchange of jades has been seen as a dyadic relationship between elites (gifting and tribute). Some have argued for gradations of value in the circulation of jades, which probably circulated in both elite and commoner spheres. More recent research argues that jade blanks were commoditized because they could be standardized. In this article, we evaluate this last claim, concluding there is no evidence for standardization and commodification of jade blanks, and a dearth of jade blanks in archaeological deposits. We critique the expectation that commodities in some nonindustrial economies should be standardized, and make suggestions about what kinds of jade objects, if any, have greatest potential to become commodities in the Maya area.

Two genera of nonhuman primates that include howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata and Alouatta pigra) and spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) currently are located throughout the Maya region. It has been suggested that the Classic Maya associated these monkeys, especially howler monkeys, with the arts. This view is exemplified in the Popol Vuh and in depictions of monkey-man scribes on Late Classic (c. a.d. 550–900) ceramics. This paper provides evidence that a third genus, the capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus), is also located in the southern Maya region and may have extended as far north as Belize within the last century. Supporting data are drawn from historic accounts, artifact and faunal analysis, and linguistic data. It is also proposed, based on an interspecific comparison of morphological and behavioral characteristics, that capuchin monkeys rather than howler monkeys are the animals represented in depictions of monkey scribes.

The C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of amber and jet beads found at Tipu, a Colonial-period Maya site in Belize, Central America, indicate that these materials are of European origin. The two jet beads were found in association with the burial of children in a Christian cemetery, and the single amber bead was in a midden from the early years of Spanish occupation. Both the cemetery and the midden probably date to the late sixteenth century. The amber is clearly of Baltic origin. The jet spectrum is consistent with a Spanish origin.

Salvage excavation of a small mound on the south coast of Guatemala revealed evidence of Late Preclassic salt production. Most potsherds are of a crude, thin-walled utility ware believed to have been used in evaporating salt water over fires. Level-by-level attribute analysis suggests evolution of a more efficient vessel form for this purpose. A typological study of fine ware and radiocarbon dating firmly position the mound chronologically. Charcoal was abundant; daub and elongated hearths probably figured in the technology. Also, the absence of edible plant remains and the scarcity of obsidian blades and animal bone add to the picture of a specialized, salt-producing locality. The represented salt-making technology is partially reconstructed using comparative ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological sources from southern Mesoamerica.

In the territories of the former lakes in the Basin of Mexico, a tlatel was an insular settlement associated with the exploitation of lacustrine resources. This study examines the stratigraphy and geomorphological context of three tlateles in the eastern part of the former Lake Texcoco and correlates their phases of development with regional paleoclimatic trends from the seventh century b.c. to the sixteenth century. The results of this research indicate that fluvio-lacustrine (i.e., deltaic) sedimentation and freshwater springs in the lake basin were important features for the establishment of tlatel settlements in the highly dynamic and saline lacustrine environment. The formation and abandonment of the studied tlateles correlate with changes in other settlements and developments recorded in other parts of Lake Texcoco. Sites and sediments in the eastern part of Lake Texcoco provide proxy information on the lacustrine changes that accompanied the development of Tenochtitlan and other lacustrine settlements in its western part.

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of Middle and Late Postclassic and Early Colonial period decorated and plain ware ceramic sherds from Brainerd's excavation collections at Cerro Portezuelo highlight diachronic changes in commercial pottery exchange prior to and during the Aztec empire and during the first century of Spanish colonial rule. The INAA results show that before the Aztec empire (Middle Postclassic period; a.d. 1150–1350), most pottery used at Cerro Portezuelo was made locally or imported from various sources in the southern Basin of Mexico. After the empire formed (Late Postclassic period; a.d. 1350–1521), local pottery exchange continued, but Tenochtitlan became the primary source of imported pottery in Cerro Portezuelo, despite its location within Texcoco's domain, which was likely attributable to Tenochtitlan merchants' successful exploitation of lake trafficking. After the Spanish Conquest (Early Colonial period; a.d. 1521–1625), Texcoco became the principal supplier of pottery in Cerro Portezuelo. Tenochtitlan persisted as a commercial exporter of pottery after the conquest but on a smaller scale, probably because of the degradation and infilling of the lakes, especially Lake Texcoco.

The archaeological evidence for pre-Columbian roadways in the northern Mayan area is well documented. These range from broad intracity causeways and long, raised intercity roadways to small local pathways. In the colonial Mayan–Spanish and Spanish–Mayan dictionaries written by Franciscan friars in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries there are various references to roadways. These references were located through a computer-aided search through the dictionaries. Supplementing these references is the information given in various documents written by Franciscan historians, as well as the variety of documents written by the Maya. This information was also located through searches in computerized versions of these documents. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these references to determine how the information in them can be used to broaden our understanding of Mayan roadways, culture, and society.

Ethnohistoric documents characterize the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in central Mexico as an era of endemic warfare and mass migration, processes that archaeologists have causally related to the development of the Aztec Empire. In this paper, we explore a striking transition in this dynamic, but poorly understood period at the Otomi capital of Xaltocan. The archaeological record reveals that with the adoption of Aztec II Black-on-Orange pottery by a.d. 1240, Xaltocan witnessed the expansion of the island to accommodate more residents, construction of the chinampa agricultural system, and the emergence of two subpopulations with distinct household organization, consumption, and funerary practices. We link a microscale examination of domestic activities with contextual understanding of macrolevel population dynamics, ethnic politics, and political-economic processes, and argue that this shift is due to an influx of migrants. These findings have significant implications for shifting conceptions of identity associated with the emergence of large polities.

Drought and drought-induced famine are recurring phenomena in Mesoamerica that have devastated populations in the region repeatedly during the past two millennia. Although it is counterintuitive to conceive of the idea that volcanic eruptions anywhere in the world might affect the lives of people in Mesoamerica, we examine the reports of drought and famine during the period A.D. 1440 to 1840 and compare them with known, large volcanic eruptions. We then apply non-parametric statistical techniques to determine whether the coincidences seen between worldwide volcanic eruptions and Mesoamerican drought within the following two years were due to random chance or whether there was a direct, mathematically verifiable correlation. We find a direct correlation to a probability of 56 in 100 million. We conclude that due to its unique geographical position, Mesoamerica was repeatedly devastated by drought and subsequent famine between 1440 and 1840 due to the indirect climatic effects of large volcanic eruptions that could be located anywhere in the world.

Did Mesoamerican temples really symbolize sacred mountains? If so, what accounts for their varying forms across space and time? Through a socio-historical and iconographic approach, it is now becoming possible to explain the social and historical factors for why design in ancient Maya temples varied. Using these methods, this paper reconstructs and reinterprets one famous “sacred mountain” in the Maya region: Temple 22, at Copan, Honduras, dedicated by king Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil in a.d. 715. Since 1998, the author has led a project to conserve, document, analyze, and hypothetically reconstruct thousands of sculptures from the building's collapsed façades. In design and symbolism, the building probably represented not just a mountain, but the Maya universe. In its more specific historical context, Temple 22 was designed as royal rhetoric to affirm order at a disorderly moment, and used both traditional and innovative forms to assert Copan's leading role on the boundary of the Maya world.

The authors challenge the argument by other world-system scholars that Lower Central America fell outside the Mesoamerican world-system during the late Postclassic period. Drawing on ethnohistoric and archaeological information, it is argued that native peoples along the Pacific Coast of Central America from El Salvador to the Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica) are best understood as part of the Mesoamerican periphery. The Central American peoples south of Nicoya formed both a chiefly world-system of their own and part of the Mesoamerican frontier by engaging in networks of trade and preciosity exchanges with the coastal Mesoamericans in Nicoya and Nicaragua. Support for this argument is based primarily on two “microhistoric” case studies of peoples located on both sides of the Mesoamerican/Lower Central America border, specifically the Chorotegans of the Masaya/Granada area of Nicaragua and the Chibchans of the Diquis/Buenos Aires area of Costa Rica. Archaeological information on sites in both areas and documentation from Spanish colonial sources that refer to native peoples in these areas strongly indicate that the Masaya/Granada peoples were active participants in the Mesoamerican regional network. In contrast, information from the Diquis/Buenos Aires area for this period reveals only weak Mesoamerican ties but strong relations with a Chibchan intersocietal network of chiefdoms.

Izapa is famous for its monumental architecture and extensive corpus of carved stelae dated to the Late Formative Guillén phase (300–100 cal b.c.). The site was first established, however, as the capital of a kingdom during the second half of the Middle Formative period (750–300 cal b.c.). Little is known of the first centuries of the site's occupation or how this early kingdom coalesced with Izapa as its capital. In 2012, the Izapa Regional Settlement Project (IRSP) excavated 21 test units and ran 10 radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates in order to begin correcting this lacuna. These excavations were the first at the site to screen soil matrices and recover artifact samples that can be quantitatively analyzed.

We undertook excavations in areas north and south of Group B, the original center of Izapa. This work dates the northern expansion of the site's main platform (under Mound 30a) to the Terminal Formative Itstapa phase (cal a.d. 100–300) that resulted in a doubling of the platform's size. Further, we documented that there were three distinct construction episodes in the Terminal Formative expansion and that a central staircase and ramp were built of stone during the second episode. Buried below the Terminal Formative platform expansion was a white clay surface built during the Escalón phase (750–500 cal b.c.) and used through to Guillén times. At the long, linear Mound 62 that defines the eastern edge of Izapa's site core, we documented two episodes of Guillén-phase monumental construction. Buried below this construction fill at Mound 62, a hearth feature and stone alignment are dated to the late Middle Formative based on radiocarbon assays and the results of ceramic analysis. Excavations at Mound 72 and 73 documented that Izapa's E-Group (newly recognized with lidar [light detection and ranging] data) was established in the late Middle Formative period and then significantly augmented during the Guillén phase. The architectural program at Izapa saw its apogee during the Late Formative period, but was first established during the preceding centuries of the Middle Formative. Ten new AMS dates confirm the dating of the Escalón, Frontera, and Guillén phases to 750–100 cal b.c.

Ceramic analysis allowed us to differentiate quantitatively between midden deposits and construction fill through the site's occupation and to recognize domestic versus public spaces during the first centuries of the Izapa kingdom's coalescence. We identify late Middle Formative period middens based on the high density of ceramics in addition to good surface preservation of sherds and a lack of temporal mixing of types. The designation of high-artifact density middens contrasts with the contents of Late and Terminal Formative construction fill with lower ceramic sherd densities and mixing of temporally diagnostic types. Off-mound contexts (where construction fill was mined) had even lower ceramic densities than construction fill and the sherds were very eroded. Analysis of ceramic remains from late Middle Formative period midden deposits also allowed us to infer differences in public and domestic areas of the site during the first centuries of its occupation. Formal and metric variables from these ceramic assemblages identify dish-to-jar ratios that differentiate domestic contexts (with an assortment of vessel forms) from more publically oriented areas of the site (with more serving dishes). The differential distribution of rim diameters of fancy and plain dishes allows us to identify areas of Izapa where domestic activities predominate and indicate that more publically oriented feasting practices occurred at the site center near the main pyramid (Mound 30a) during the late Middle Formative period.

A long-term research program at the Maya center of Chac (II) is providing extraordinary new information regarding architecture, mortuary populations, and foreign presence at the Puuc hills during the Early Classic period (a.d. 300–600). The finding of numerous early substructures at monumental and residential contexts, unusual mortuary practices, and various artifacts showing central Mexican inspiration and/or origin has led to the serious realization that the center of Chac did not develop in cultural isolation. It is becoming increasingly evident that Teotihuacan played a significant role, either directly or via one of its surrogates, in the rise of urban centers in the Puuc region. This paper explores the evidence of foreign influences and contacts at Chac and discusses the larger implications for the early political economy of the Puuc hills region and the region's relationship to greater Mesoamerica.

Recent research at Río Bec has revealed that interments in residential structures were limited to a very small portion of the population. Although these burials are relatively modest compared to those found in many other Classic period Maya sites, the funerary procedure suggests that they were important individuals in the household. Grave wealth and the size/elaboration of the burial structure do not correlate with the striking socioeconomic differences expressed in residential architecture. In fact, it seems that Río Bec funerary ritual was a private affair focused within the domestic unit, rather than a public display. A study of the variation found among these residential burials reveals two important patterns of mortuary ritual that seem more reflective of ancestor veneration than of social hierarchy: (1) “transition burials” (stressing centrality, verticality, the link to earth, and the transformations of the dwelling) and (2) “occupation burials” (stressing laterality, horizontality, a link to fire and the domestic hearth, and the permanence of the domestic space).

This article reports on 1991 archaeological investigations at La Isla, a small site near the Olmec center of Laguna de los Cerros, Veracruz. Excavations of Mound D, the mound's possible association with three Olmec monument fragments found in the 1970s, and problems of site stratigraphy are discussed. The article concludes with comments on the western sector of the Olmec area. The overall distribution of major Olmec centers is then considered, and a “zonal complementarity” model associating the location of those centers with distinctive natural resources is introduced.