Desde el inicio del siglo XX y después de los primeros recorridos que realizó Manuel Gamio, por el área de la Cuenca de México, se hizo patente que existían muchos sitios que de alguna forma estaban relacionados con Teotihuacan. Pero al no haber una forma sistemática de describirlos, solo algunos de esos sitios como Azcapotzalco (Gamio 1972) fueron reportados y no fue hasta los años sesenta de siglo XX, con los recorridos de superficie iniciados por Sanders y colegas en la Cuenca de México, que sabemos que Teotihuacan tuvo un ámbito rural a la manera de sitios satélite. Desafortunadamente, el conocimiento sobre la ubicación de los sitios rurales, no ha impedido que muchos de estos sitios, sean alterados o destruidos por las obras de construcción de autopistas, centros comerciales, áreas habitacionales y obras de infraestructura urbana en el área metropolitana de la ciudad de México. Es debido a esta situación, que la mayoría de los casos presentados en este trabajo corresponden a sitios que fueron explorados através de operaciones de salvamento arqueológico por quienes esto escriben, como miembros del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia de México. Los restos arqueológicos que han sobrevivido hasta nuestros días muestran una parte de la amplia gama de sitios rurales teotihuacanos que existieron en el área de la Cuenca de México y cuyo estudio es importante para la determinación de los procesos de desarrollo de las sociedades del clásico. Se trata de sitios con variaciones en sus tamaños, con diferentes calidades constructivas y que aparecieron en diferentes fases entre los años d.C. 100 a d.C. 500 En este artículo describimos algunas características de los sitios intervenidos y estudiados, tratando de relacionar y comparar la información con la que existe sobre el gran centro urbano de Teotihuacan, por lo que aquí presentaremos una síntesis con los datos que están disponibles, para entender parte de los procesos de desarrollo de la sociedad del clásico en el altiplano de Mesoamérica.

This paper aims to situate the Late Formative urban center of Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico into the greater discussion of early Mesoamerican writing systems. The elites of Izapa produced elaborate carved stone monuments in an era that bore witness to the fluorescence of three great hieroglyphic programs—the Zapotec, the Epi-Olmec, and the Maya—and, yet, only a handful of glyphs appear in Izapa's monumental corpus. In a discussion that includes Izapan iconoglyphs, possible nominal phrases, and the calendrical inscriptions on Izapa Stela 27, Stela 9, and Miscellaneous Monument 60, this study juxtaposes Izapan visual culture with representational systems to the east and west, and ultimately explores the narrative domains of greatest salience to Izapa's elite: image and cyclical time.

Archaeological spaces can be viewed as material manifestations of human drama—sites for the production, expression, and manipulation of social life, power, and history. By viewing such spaces as stages for the enactment of processes of social memory, we may further enrich considerations of the interplay of materiality and history. Here I address the insights archaeologists may gain from engaging with theories of social memory by exploring their application to the analysis of settlements occupied during the Late to Terminal Classic period transition (a.d. 650–900) in pre-Columbian southeastern Mesoamerica. I also consider their relevance to community initiatives engaged by archaeologists today. Ultimately, I argue that processes of making, altering, and remaking place are one among many ways that memory may have served as a tool for political strategies and discourses about power.

In this article we report on the results of our attempts to locate and study shaft-and-chamber tombs in the Municipality of Puerto Vallarta on the southern (Jalisco) side of the Banderas Valley of coastal West Mexico and to place these tombs in the broader context of burial practices in this area during a time corresponding to the Late Preclassic and Early Classic of Mesoamerica. We located and studied nine sites where shaft-and-chamber tombs had reportedly been discovered and looted, but here we focus on three (El Reparito, El Pozo de Doña Amparo, and La Pedrera) where we were able to excavate un-looted as well as partially looted shaft-and-chamber tombs. In the process we obtained evidence of (1) the location and type of soil selected for the excavation of such tombs; (2) variation in the form and content of the shafts and tomb chambers; (3) the tools used for digging and the manner of sealing such tombs; (4) chronological placement of the tombs; (5) burial of infants, sub-adults, and adults in the chambers; (5) pathology in the pre-Hispanic population responsible for such tombs; (6) cremation of bodies and their curation for different periods of time before incineration; and (7) alternative forms of interment along with shaft-and-chamber tombs in the same cemetery. Also, the data obtained lend support for the idea that the Ameca River and the Banderas Valley formed a “soft frontier” at this time between fairly distinct pre-Hispanic cultural traditions found to the north and to the south of the river, an area in which there was some intermixing of these traditions.

Public structures in the Maya region materialize ideologies and define centers of power as they create politically charged sacred landscapes. These locations are focal nodes for community and polity making processes, embedding social hierarchies, ideologies, and social memories into the physical landscape. Archaeologists, however, have historically focused little attention on small-scale focal nodes within rural communities. To explore the ways hinterland or rural communities may integrate and articulate with larger heartland seats of power, this article examines one such public group at the hinterland site of San Lorenzo, Belize. Drawing from studies of integrative features, we explore practices of affiliation from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods and the ways they are expressed at a civic-ceremonial community space through ritual economy. Focal nodes facilitated the face-to-face interactions that were necessary for community integration and the practices enacted within such spaces allow associated groups to negotiate and display their status within the community and to larger regional polities.

This article summarizes recent excavations of Edificio 4 in the Early Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo, which, despite prior evidence of its considerable importance, was largely unexcavated. Despite changes in strategy that resulted in discontinuous rather than complete exposure, excavation successfully delineated the entire structure and exposed portions of all or virtually all of its interior rooms, revealing a layout and architectural features notably different from those of the other buildings in Tula's monumental center, and suggest that Edificio 4 had functioned as a palace whose occupants were closely tied to Pyramid B, one of Tula's two largest pyramids. These excavations provide additional perspectives on previously noted similarities between Edificio 4 and the Casa de las Águilas of Aztec Tenochtitlan, revealing striking similarities in layout which, together with equally striking artistic similarities noted previously, make it almost certain that a major portion of the Casa de las Águilas was constructed in the image of the corresponding portion of Tula's Edificio 4.

Investigaciones recientes han mostrado que un buen número de objetos procedentes de las ofrendas del recinto sagrado de Tenochtitlan son producciones locales y no piezas foráneas, obtenidas por tributo, intercambio o saqueo. En el caso de los objetos de concha y lapidaria, sus características formales permiten identificar a un importante grupo no solamente como propio del centro de México, sino como exclusivo de Tenochtitlan e incluso de su templo principal, ya que elementos idénticos no han sido recuperados en otros emplazamientos o en las edificaciones aledañas al Huey Teocalli tenochca. El estudio de las técnicas de manufactura de estas piezas ha permitido confirmar esta suposición e incluso proponer la existencia de un estilo tecnológico tenochca. La gran estandarización morfológica y tecnológica de los objetos y su restringida distribución, permiten proponer que su producción se llevaba a cabo en un contexto dependiente, probablemente en el palacio mismo del gobernante mexica.

A total of 84 two-liter soil samples from Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) sites 17:S3E1, 18:S3E1, and the Street of the Dead excavations were fine-screened through 1-mm mesh and were sorted to retrieve tiny artifacts. The raw lapidary stone and marine shell material was then analyzed to assess the presence and intensity of artifact production. These data were also compared with the lapidary material of nearby 33:S3W1. A robust multicraft lapidary production was revealed. Sequins and stemmed trapezoid pendants were manufactured from slate, greenstone, marine shell, and mica, with slate being the predominant raw material being worked. A reduction sequence for slate sequins was developed based on the various shapes of slate materials that indicated the stages of production. Importantly, this lapidary craft production was not recognized from surface collections prior to excavation.

Recent research carried out at the Maya site of Nakum, located in northeastern Guatemala, has brought about the discovery of a large collection of ceramic artefacts. This substantial assemblage, apart from monochrome ceramics, includes fragments of polychrome vessels that are decorated with elaborate iconographic scenes and painted hieroglyphic texts. Most of them date to the Late Classic period (ca. a.d. 600–800), which represents the peak of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. The style of these ceramics, their iconography and accompanying glyphic texts, supplemented in many cases by mineralogical and physicochemical analyses of the ceramic samples, indicate that Nakum was part of a broad and complex network of political and economic interactions between various sites and polities of the southern Maya lowlands in the Classic period. During the first part of the Late Classic period, Nakum seems to maintain close relations with Naranjo, probably serving as its vassal at least from the reign of its renowned king Aj Wosal. After the victory of Tikal over Naranjo in the first part of the eighth century, Nakum shows closer cultural and political connections with Tikal. Nevertheless, towards the end of the Classic era, when we observe the profound collapse of lowland Maya civilization, Nakum elites gain political independence from their former overlords.

The results of trace-element analysis of 200 prismatic blades from Colha, Belize, are reported. Questions concerning possible elite control and restriction of obsidian distribution, and the relative decline and increase of the El Chayal and Ixtepeque sources in varying functional contexts within lower- and upper-status areas are the primary focus of the study. Contrary to expectations, a high percentage (51%) of obsidian was assigned to the Ixtepeque source, 48% was assigned to El Chayal, and only two samples (1%) were assigned to Rio Pixcaya. The use of obsidian from the Ixtepeque source declines through time from Tepeu 2 through Tepeu 3 from 72% to 43%, and Ixtepeque obsidian appears to have had a largely ceremonial use by the Terminal Classic period. It appears that as Ixtepeque obsidian became less available at the site, it fell more into the hands of the elite. This trend runs counter to our expectations of an apparent lack of elite control of Ixtepeque obsidian in the Postclassic. The Colha data suggest that a slightly different process may have governed the distribution of Ixtepeque obsidian in the Late/Terminal Classic than during the Postclassic period. It is not clear, however, whether this trend extends to regional differences in control or is simply a local idiosyncratic phenomenon at Colha.

Excavation at the Late Postclassic (a.d. 1300–1520) site of Tehuacan Viejo, Puebla, Mexico revealed a room with a codex-style mural. The mural is divided into two zones. The lower zone is composed of white stucco and decorated with red circles. The upper zone is composed of mud plaster and decorated with seven and one-half shields behind which occur crossed lances and banners. Holes in the wall above the painted shields once held wooden pegs for hanging actual shields. The door jambs and circular columns of the eastern doorway are painted with horizontal bands representing the layers of heaven. Streamers hang from these bands. Included in the decoration on these streamers are stylized stars and blue butterflies. These may represent the souls of dead warriors. Symbolically, the room is the heavenly abode of these warriors. The most likely function of the room was as an armory.

During the summer of 1995, an intensive archaeological survey of the Río Talgua drainage in eastern Honduras was conducted after the discovery of the Talgua Cave in the Department of Olancho. One important goal of this survey was the identification of the indigenous population responsible for depositing the ninth-century b.c. human burials found upstream in Talgua Cave. In addition to this survey, four other caves were found and/or explored during this season, and limited excavations were also conducted at the mounded site of Talgua downstream and at the ceramic-production site of Chichicaste in the mountains to the west. Preliminary analysis of the architecture and ceramics from 39 newly identified archaeological sites in the Talgua Valley suggests that all appear to date to the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–900), leaving the location of the Middle Formative period population unresolved. A review of the survey, cave, and ceramic data, however, does reveal possible information about the multiethnic nature of the regional political system and local social structure that existed in this previously unstudied area of Central America.

Research on Classic Maya personhood confirms that personhood was extended to non-human entities; however, questions about its operation and impact remain. What is the nature of the linkage between human beings and object persons, and how does personhood pass between them? What is the impact on an object of becoming personed? I approach these questions through depictions in Classic Maya iconography of faces shown on non-human objects, indicating potential to act in person-like ways. Close examination of “faced” objects reveals that Classic Maya personhood represents a substance that does not require humans as a source, and acts, instead, as an untethered resource accessed by entities able to act in social, relational ways. Furthermore, object personhood represents a state of identity in which essences of persons and objects co-exist, opening possibilities for complicating categories of being in the ancient Maya world.

Recientemente, en el Museo del Templo Mayor se ha llevado a cabo un proyecto de investigación uno de cuyos principales objetivo es el conocimiento de las tradiciones tecnológicas del trabajo de las conchas de moluscos, que se desarrollaron en diferentes sitios y regiones del México prehispánico. En el presente trabajo se presentan los resultados de los análisis tecnológicos de cinco colecciones de piezas conquiliológicas que comprenden más de 2,000 años de la historia del centro de México, desde el preclásico temprano hasta la conquista europea (1250 a.C.–1521 d.C.). Se identifican rasgos que son comunes y que evidencian la existencia de una memoria colectiva de larga duración en la elaboración de objetos de concha, así como elementos que son particulares y en los que pueden observarse rupturas o cambios. En este sentido resultan particularmente interesantes las producciones que se elaboran en Tenochtitlan a partir del reinado del gobernante Axayacatl, ya que ciertos materiales y herramientas de uso común en épocas anteriores en el altiplano central de México son olvidados, quizás para la conciente creación de un estilo tecnológico propio de la capital del recientemente consolidado imperio azteca.

This paper explores the nature of community leadership within the Late–Terminal Classic Maya site of Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico. The distribution of political and religious activities—as represented archaeologically by cylindrical stone monuments (“altars”) and Oxkutzcab Applique censers—is examined. It is argued that such activities are dispersed into the upper ranks of Sayil society, rather than concentrated in the royal, ruling sector. It is further argued that the residential areas in which political and religious activities were concentrated may have been the loci of lineage heads of Sayil, who maintained important leadership roles despite attempts at centralization by the rulers.

During the 1970s, excavations at El Zapotal revealed a Late Classic period ossuary with multiple burials, sumptuous funerary offerings, and life-sized terracotta sculpture individually on a par with the Chinese national treasures from Xi'an. Less known are murals adorning a U-shaped banquette centering on the monumental clay sculpture of a skeletal Death God.

Wyllie, through the assistance of Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Veracruz, produced drawings of the now deteriorating paintings. The murals form part of a larger narrative program integrating sculpture, architectural elements, burial offerings, and human osteological remains connected with Mesoamerican underworld stories of creation.

The interpretation of craft activity in Mesoamerica has been hindered by difficulties in recognizing and defining the archaeological signatures associated with obsidian blade production and consumption. Theoretical advances and experimental approaches have improved our understanding, but few studies have investigated the role of obsidian blade production in craft activity using empirical data from archaeological assemblages. The present study addresses this problem by presenting an analysis of obsidian flakes and blades recovered from a workshop refuse context at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Technological and use wear analyses suggest that core-shaping by-products in the form of irregular percussion and pressure blades were used in craft activity. Fine blades were underrepresented in the assemblage, suggesting that cores or blades left the workshop as finished goods. These analyses demonstrate that the actual behavior of artisans likely did not conform exactly to the dichotomous theoretical categories of production and consumption that archaeologists routinely use.

The study of writing has in many cases devoted attention to the detection of forms of writing. It has also tended to distinguish these from forms of non-writing by relying on the western notion that true writing must represent language. This study departs from former work and applies an integrational theory of writing to the notational system of Teotihuacan in central Mexico, observing the distinction between glottographic (language-based) and semasiographic (idea-based) writing. The article suggests that scribes at Teotihuacan employed the graphic space of speech scrolls to differentiate consciously between glottographic and semasiographic writing. The analysis behind the study reveals an important difference, too, between the infixes and affixes of speech scrolls, whereby infixes always represented semasiographic writing; in contrast, affixes could consist of both glottographic and semasiographic writing. An integrational theory of writing that focuses on graphic space as a distinguishing feature of different writing systems can show how scribes of ancient Teotihuacan established and followed subtle distinctions within their notational system, in a manner unknown in western writing.

In recent years, researchers in pre-Hispanic Central America have used new approaches that greatly amplify and enhance evidence of plants and their uses. This paper presents a case study from Puerto Escondido, located in the lower Ulúa River valley of Caribbean coastal Honduras. We demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple methods in concert to interpret ethnobotanical practice in the past. By examining chipped-stone tools, ceramics, sediments from artifact contexts, and macrobotanical remains, we advance complementary inquiries. Here, we address botanical practices “in the home,” such as foodways, medicinal practices, fiber crafting, and ritual activities, and those “close to home,” such as agricultural and horticultural practices, forest management, and other engagements with local and distant ecologies. This presents an opportunity to begin to develop an understanding of ethnoecology at Puerto Escondido, here defined as the dynamic relationship between affordances provided in a botanical landscape and the impacts of human activities on that botanical landscape.

From their beginnings some 4,000 years ago to their decadence around 400 b.c., the Olmec people achieved a high level of sociopolitical complexity and dominated their native geographic territory, the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico. The first Olmec capital of San Lorenzo, Veracruz, was the only site in Mesoamerica that produced imposing monumental stone sculpture and architecture between 1800 and 1000 b.c. These characteristics reflect the capabilities of its centralized political system headed by hereditary rulers with divine legitimation. Key issues regarding the development of San Lorenzo Olmec culture center on subsistence and environment. The present study focuses on a portion of the landscape located immediately north of the first Olmec capital of San Lorenzo, Veracruz, that has been proposed as a key resource area during the development of the first civilization in Mesoamerica. We calculate the surface, volume, and water depth of this area based on archaeological data and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) derived from an airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey. The expected minimum and maximum area, local minimum altitude, and the DTM of 5-m spatial resolution provide a basis for inferences regarding the characteristics of the wetland ecosystem during Olmec times. The goal is to quantify and qualify the potential of this resource zone relying on LiDAR topography. Our models validate the observations in the field and, when combined with algorithms, they confirm the archaeological conclusions. We affirm that the northern plain in Olmec times was deeper than it is today and would have been a source of abundant aquatic resources for the primary subsistence of the early Olmec society.