This article presents a review of the earliest known skeletal remains in the Maya area, which are found in submerged caves in Mexico and rock shelters in Belize and date to the Paleoindian and Archaic periods. While few in number, several of these individuals have been the focus of intensive analyses, providing an emerging picture of life in the region before the transition to agriculture and settled village communities.

The recovery of macro- and microbotanicals, along with the study of chemical residues, allows us to shed light on a number of anthropological issues concerning ancient populations. This article reviews the data available to date on the plants used by preceramic peoples during the Archaic period and by the Early to Middle Preclassic Maya across the central Maya lowlands. Archaeobotanical data suggest that early preceramic populations took advantage of their ecologically rich natural environment by gathering a range of wild foods and by cultivating domesticates such as maize, manioc, and chili peppers, a pattern that seemingly continued into the Early to Middle Preclassic, as the Maya settled into village life and left more visible traces of modifications to their natural environment in the form of canals and terraces. This region is of particular interest with regard to the development of sociopolitical complexity, as mobile hunter-gatherers used domesticates during the millennia that preceded the onset of sedentary life. These early populations set the stage for patterns of plant use that endured through time, but also across space in the Maya region.

En las unidades domésticas de las comunidades chinamperas en Xochimilco del posclásico tardío, han sido localizadas un tipo de jarras que tienen como característica principal una aplicación en la parte frontal de la pieza que posiblemente representa una deidad. Con el propósito de entender su función y establecer elementos que permitan identificar estos objetos y su uso en otros contextos, proponemos estudiar estas piezas mediante métodos diferentes a los de los análisis formales tradicionales. Este trabajo expone los resultados de los estudios de residuos químicos impregnados en materiales porosos (spot test) y análisis de gránulos de almidón de 27 muestras obtenidas en 26 ejemplares de jarras efigie procedentes de tres sitios al sur de la cuenca de México. Los resultados indican que fueron enriquecidas con fosfatos, residuos proteicos, carbohidratos, y ácidos grasos, mientras que los almidones recuperados indican una presencia importante de maíz, y en menor medida, de camote, chile, y dioscórea. Basado en lo anterior, en sus contextos de procedencia y en la identificación de las deidades representadas, proponemos que estas jarras contenían bebidas de maíz y que fueron utilizadas en ceremonias domésticas dedicadas a la agricultura—como la fiesta de Huey Tozoztli, entre otras—del calendario mexica.

Salvage excavations along the right of way of a 2 km stretch of proposed highway crossing the northern part of the Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo utilized a multi-phase investigation strategy, featuring pedestrian survey and exploratory test-pitting. This fieldwork led to extensive excavation in five localities, which uncovered significant portions of both elite and non-elite residential compounds, a possible administrative structure, and two temples, one of which is the earliest example of a twin temple pyramid in western Mesoamerica. The diversity of structures and corresponding functions encountered in excavation are comparable to those found in previous excavations that suggest the city was organized into barrios, each with its own political, religious, social, and other institutions that mimic those of the larger urban polity. While these investigations confirm previous evidence of considerable destruction of the ancient city in recent decades, they also demonstrate that significant portions are still intact.

This study examines small-scale household ceramic production at the site of Xaltocan, Mexico, to understand the organization of household ceramic production prior to the development of the Aztec Empire. We examine utilitarian vessels and serving wares from an Early Postclassic (a.d. 900–1200) domestic context using neutron activation analysis (NAA). We also examine archaeological evidence for ceramic manufacture. The NAA data reveal that similar raw materials and paste recipes were used for both utilitarian and decorated wares, suggesting that households produced both plain and decorated pottery. We conclude that ceramic production was an intermittent activity that took place alongside other crafts and agriculture. By looking at ceramics within their contexts of use and production, we consider the practices and choices made by individual social units, which is crucial to interpreting broader Early Postclassic economic systems and the ways in which commoners influenced these systems.

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.

Investigations concerning the earliest Maya have been of archaeological interest for many decades. Northern Belize serves as a valuable region for researching and understanding early Maya developments. In particular, the ancient Maya site of Colha in northern Belize is a focal point of some early developments beginning in the Archaic period. Select resources in the region, especially in the chert-bearing zone, clearly had been of great interest and attraction to populations extending back into Paleoindian and Archaic times, as well as the Maya period for Colha and other sites near the resource zone. With the appearance of pottery-producing settled villages is the common assertion that Maya societies are in place around 1000 b.c. Recent studies have identified much earlier occupants in the region with significant cultural developments, including semi-permanent occupation and horticulture occurring in the Late Archaic at approximately 3400 b.c. It seems plausible, perhaps likely by our assessment, that these Late Archaic people (or aceramic populations) may have been the earliest Maya communities. Factors of defining communities, aspects of horticulture, and the transition from the Archaic into the Preclassic are reviewed in consideration of—just who were the earliest Maya?

Pyramid B was one of the most important buildings in the sacred precinct of the Early Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo. On its summit was a temple supported by anthropomorphic and zoomorphic columns and four pillars containing the reliefs of 16 individuals and other images. Based on comparative analysis with other archaeological specimens and images from conquest era codices, I propose that all 16 individuals were warrior-kings in sacred dress bearing a suite of weapons associated with the Tollan-Xicocotitlan elite.

In this article, I examine the use of ceramic fragments to mark sacred spaces at the Postclassic central Mexican site of Xaltocan. Recent excavations in Xaltocan's central precinct revealed a series of ritual features dating to Xaltocan's Middle Postclassic period (a.d. 1240–1350) that were carefully constructed with ceramic fragments. I argue that this practice might represent an effort on the part of Xaltocan's Postclassic leaders to mark these features as sacred. Although Xaltocan was ruled by Otomi peoples during this time, the careful incorporation of ceramic fragments into ritual spaces might be related to the Nahua concept of tlazolli and possibly reflects the increasing influence of Nahua ideologies across the Basin of Mexico. Despite its generally negative connotations, tlazolli was a powerful substance that central Mexicans could manipulate to energize ritual spaces. By carefully reordering ceramic fragments in and around ritual features, Xaltocan's leaders might have imbued these spaces with sacred energy. While the concept of tlazolli might have been quite widespread during this time, the specific practices discussed in this article appear to have been isolated to Xaltocan's Middle Postclassic leaders. Perhaps the specific practices observed were an invention of Xaltocan's Middle Postclassic leaders that never spread.

The transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portable objects. In this article, we synthesize data collected over the past several decades by various archaeological projects in western Belize to provide an overview of the cultural changes that unfolded during the Late Archaic to Late Early Formative period in the Upper Belize River Valley. We also provide evidence indicating that it was during this critical transitional period that we begin to see the establishment of several cultural traditions that became uniquely lowland Maya.

This article offers a revision of the chronology and settlement history of Tula, Hidalgo, synthesizing information obtained from numerous investigations and 68 radiocarbon and seven archaeomagnetic dates. Tula Chico's earliest settlement appeared while the region was under the control of Teotihuacan as one of many hilltop Coyotlatelco settlements in the region. The monumental center at Tula Grande did not appear until after Tula grew to power, presumably with the consolidation of the other Coyotlatelco polities. Extensive exposure of residential structures in numerous localities have revealed a widespread pattern of barrios containing households exhibiting a wide range of social status that enjoyed access to a wide variety of luxury items including the first reported objects of gold. Tula Grande and the Tollan phase city appear to have already been abandoned and in ruins prior to the arrival of Aztec II peoples. The Late Aztec period occupation shows a preoccupation with Tula's ruins that parallels similar evidence from the Templo Mayor excavations suggesting it was indeed the place the Aztecs called Tollan.

The Tlahuica, a Nahua ethnic group, arrived in what is now western Morelos and conquered several preexisting towns circa a.d. 1100. Members of Tlahuica elite lineages took control of irrigable land and founded altepeme (small city-states). As population increased, segmentation occurred until there were 32 altepeme. The elite's control of the irrigable land was the basis for collecting tribute consisting of cotton cloth. The 32 altepeme in western Morelos became part of three señoríos (regional centers) comprised of multiple altepeme by a.d. 1400: Cuauhnahuac, Tlaquiltenango, and Xiutepec. Coatlan, located in the southwestern part of western Morelos, remained an independent polity separate from the three señoríos. The 32 altepeme were conquered by the Triple Alliance in the 1430s and 1450s, putting a halt to further conquests by these señoríos and leaving Coatlan as an independent buffer state between the Tlahuica señoríos and Chontal polities to the southwest. The Triple Alliance did not displace the local population in western Morelos or send colonists from the Basin of Mexico, as they did in non-Nahua provinces of the empire.

This article presents a review of the earliest Maya skeletal remains thus far found, including a list of 398 burials dating to the Early (1800–900 b.c.) and Middle Preclassic periods (900–300 b.c.) and adjacent regions. These sites are spread throughout the Maya region and the data allow basic descriptive syntheses about early mortuary behavior and aspects of health and diet. Poor preservation and differences in scoring and reporting severely limit the scope of interpretation possible at this point, but it is hoped that this review stimulates coordinated research into the biology of early groups.