Although it was common in Mesoamerica to adopt foreign deities from other pantheons, less is known about the processes of “translating” foreign deities as a function of the divinities' attributes. This article analyzes the degree of intelligibility among pre-Hispanic K'iche’, P'urepecha, and Nahua peoples based on the study of patron gods Tohil and Curicaueri and their possible equivalents in the Central Highland pantheon. We can see that the search for divine homologues on the part of Mesoamerican peoples implies, beyond cultural homogeneity, an ongoing exchange of information, and recognition of the religion of the “other” based on equal standing, which tends to be a characteristic of polytheistic peoples in general.

Among the original holdings of the recently opened World Digital Library was a Spanish manuscript on the Maya that supposedly dates to 1548 (initially available at http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2961). It was given the title El modo de cómo hacían la pintura los indígenas (“How the Indians Made Their Paintings”) and contained an explanation of Maya culture accompanied by drawings of Maya glyphs and deities. Detailed analysis shows that the Pintura manuscript is a fake that belongs to the Canek group of forged manuscripts. It is written in the same hand as the Canek forgeries and shares the same stylistic characteristics with this group. Its drawings copy illustrations from the third English or the second Spanish edition of Sylvanus Morley's The Ancient Maya, and from the Madrid Codex. The World Digital Library aims to make significant primary materials from all UNESCO member countries available on the Internet. Forgeries like the Pintura manuscript undermine the trustworthiness and eminence of this project. While the Pintura manuscript was removed from the World Digital Library in August 2009, researchers may find useful the holistic approach that allowed identifying it as a forgery. A historical document is here examined from six angles. What are its physical makeup, its penmanship, and its linguistic properties? Authentic documents should have a traceable history of documentation (here termed a “pedigree”) and their content should be consistent with well-established sources and with culture- and time-specific conventions.

En excavaciones efectuadas en Chichén Itzá en 1967, se encontró una construcción subterránea tipo chultun conteniendo los restos óseos de más de 70 individuos humanos, la mayoría subadultos masculinos. El depósito mortuorio presenta características de ser post-sacrificial, de carácter primario; la datación por carbono-14 lo ubica hacia el 1000 d.C., en el momento de mayor expansión de Chichén Itzá como ciudad capital regional. La cuantificación de 1,066 dientes permanentes establece un número mínimo de individuos de 75 (incisivo central superior izquierdo). Con el propósito de discernir sobre la afinidad biológica de los individuos, primero se llevó a cabo un análisis univariante y multivariante de los diámetros mesiodistales y bucolinguales y se compararon con 16 sitios prehispánicos de época clásica; posteriormente se analizó la morfología dental en 14 rasgos y se compararon con 24 sitios mayas prehispánicos del clásico, siguiendo la metodología estandarizada de Arizona State University Dental Anthropological System (ASUDAS). Se aplicaron tres análisis multivariantes (medida media de divergencia, análisis de conglomerados, y escalamiento multidimensional). Con base en este estudio, podemos afirmar que los niños del chultun de Chichén Itzá no pertenecen a las poblaciones de las Tierras Bajas del norte o del sur, como tampoco a las de las Tierras Altas del sur. Quizá formaban parte de grupos de comerciantes de larga distancia que se asentaron en Chichén Itzá a partir del 800 d.C. para dominar las rutas de comercio tanto marítimas como terrestres de la Península.

Survey teams at the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna have mapped 70 percent of its 20 km2 area and revealed the extent of settlement around the city center. Large-scale civic architecture, and the distribution of smaller ceremonial groups and minor centers, reflect the wealth and power of Maya rulers presiding over the largest Classic period city in the upper Belize River area. Previous analyses suggest disparities in wealth at El Pilar were more nuanced than the elite/commoner dichotomy commonly invoked for Classic Maya society. This article works to understand wealth inequality at ancient El Pilar by computing Gini coefficients from areal and volumetric calculations of primary residential units—the class of settlement remains most likely to represent ancient households. Presentation of Gini coefficients and their potential interpretations follows a discussion of settlement classification and residential group labor investment. We conclude by contextualizing these results within prior settlement pattern analyses to explore how disparities in wealth may have been distributed across the physical and social landscape.

This article presents the results of a preliminary bioarchaeological study of 10 funerary urns containing human burned remains from the Los Tamarindos urn-field cemetery dated to the Postclassic period. I was able to determine the basic biological profile data. In addition, I determined the fragmentation rate as well as the thermal alternation of bones from funerary urns from Los Tamarindos, which allowed me to propose the first observations about the Pretarascan cremation burial practices in this region. The low weight of bones indicates that burials should be determined as partial burials; however, they contain fragments of bones from each anatomical region. The structure of the bones and the chromatic discoloration caused by the thermal alternation indicate that temperature during the cremation did not exceed 900°C, given that the cremains did not exhibit the recrystallization structure, which is interpreted as a characteristic feature of the high maximum temperature of a funerary pyre during the cremation.

Archaeological excavations at Yaxnohcah have revealed a long sequence of sedentary occupation, from 1000 b.c. to a.d. 1400, with dynamic periods of growth occurring during the Middle (1000–400 b.c.) and Late Preclassic (400 b.c.–a.d. 200). Two of these complexes, Grazia and Helena, serve as case studies that reveal the transformative processes of this period, illustrating site evolution on a larger scale. The Grazia platform probably began as a residential area in the Middle Preclassic and acquired an increasingly public character throughout subsequent modifications, culminating in the construction of a triadic temple platform and a ballcourt. A long sequence of fire rituals and altars show the importance of the Grazia complex as a center for collective ritual. Helena also features Middle Preclassic domestic constructions, but was transformed into a ballcourt platform during the transition to the Late Preclassic. Both cases show that Yaxnohcah was founded as a widespread, loosely integrated settlement in the Middle Preclassic and evolved into a formally and centralized network of communities with their respective nodal centers in the Late Preclassic period. Placemaking and the rise of monumentality played an important role in this transformation and reflect the particular forms of community integration.

“Mesoamerican Cultural Astronomy and the Calendar” is a Special Section including articles that explore portions of Mesoamerica where astronomy and calendars were studied by Indigenous peoples. Scholars who are well known for innovative work in astronomy, such as Aveni, as well as Pineda de Carías, Rivera, and Argueta, consider topics that fall under the rubric of cultural astronomy. Epigraphers or experts in hieroglyphic writing, like Justeson and Vail, deal in explicit ways with issues related to calendar development. An art historian, Milbrath, weighs in on the meaning of astronomical and calendar themes using important documents incorporating both images and texts. An archaeologist, Dowd, and an architect, Carrasco, discuss architectural complexes with orientations significant in horizon-based astronomy. This rich cross-disciplinary collection of articles debuts new discoveries that interweave astronomy, time measurement, and ritual behavior commemorating cycles of death and rebirth among Maya peoples who lived between a.d. 225–1519 in what is now Honduras, Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark of late Pre-Columbian Maya and Mesoamerican religious complexes. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen Itza's ceremonial innovations count skull racks (known as tzompantli in Nahuatl), where the heads of sacrificed victims would be exhibited. Here we combine the scrutiny of death imagery and human skeletal remains, including skulls with marks of bilateral or basal impalement and mandibles with perimortem decapitation from “New” Chichen, the Osario complex, and from Chichen's astronomical Caracol complex. Our combined skeletal and iconographic data confirm the increased practice of corpse processing and head exhibition at Chichen Itza when compared to Classic-period Maya centers. Most of these body treatments were not foreign introductions, as generally believed, but followed local practices, long carried out at the Yucatecan urban centers of Nohpat, Kabah, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. Although on a minor scale compared to Chichen, these demonstrate the display of human body segments, not only skulls, which renders the term tzompantli problematic. In the context of the totalitarian rhetoric of Chichen's central spaces, the massified violence and corpse display herald late religious cults at the cadences of battles won, astronomical cycles, and the perpetual movement of the Feathered Serpent.

Desde la antigüedad, los artefactos de pizarra fueron utilizados por sociedades asentadas en diversos puntos del continente americano; su uso abarcó diferentes temporalidades y múltiples formas.

En el caso particular de Teotihuacán, ubicado en el centro de México, los artefactos en cuestión se reportan dentro y fuera de esta ciudad, depositados como ofrenda y asociados directamente al fuego, al agua y al inframundo. Aunque la pizarra fue una materia prima con una presencia constante en Teotihuacán, sólo se reconoce cuando aparece asociada a los espejos, cuando presenta diseños iconográficos, o con evidencia de decoración. Al respecto, en este texto señalamos la importancia de la pizarra en Teotihuacán, su cronología y contexto. De acuerdo con los resultados de los análisis tipológicos, geológicos y de caracterización, proponemos el aprovechamiento de diversas materias primas dentro de un mismo yacimiento, así como la identificación de las áreas de extracción de la pizarra utilizada por los teotihuacanos a través del tiempo.

Estos datos nos permiten inferir las funciones rituales, simbólicas y jerárquicas de esta materia prima dentro de la metrópoli teotihuacana.