The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the remains are thin, mold-made fragments identified as ceramic plaques that have epigraphic information providing a Long Count date for the first time in the Alta Verapaz region. These data correlate with the preliminary ceramic sequences and assist with understanding political-economic interactions that occurred at a time of societal collapse within the southern lowland region.

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.

In this article I argue that the graphic images of the gods in the divinatory codices are composed of signs of different semantic values which encode particular properties. All of them contribute to creating the identity of the god. However, these graphic elements are not only shared by different deities, but even differ between representations of the same god. Analyzing the graphic images of Xipe Totec, one of the best-studied deities and one of the oldest in Mesoamerica, I elaborate a hypothesis that the images of the gods in the divinatory codices were perceived by their authors as a mosaic of different properties, which at the same time were dynamic. Consequently, there was not even one “prototypical” representation of a single god, since possibly the identity of a god was defined precisely when composing his/her image with particular graphic signs, thus crystallizing some of his/her multiple properties, important at this precise moment.

Functional determinations of stone tools gleaned through high-magnification usewear analysis enable archaeologists to reconstruct ancient household practices and identify diversity across regional domestic economies. A systematic obsidian usewear study with 300 specimens from the site of Altica, Mexico presented here reveals that tools from the Early–Middle Formative (1250–800 cal. b.c.) occupation were used for woodworking and subsistence-related activities. The high frequency of woodworking usewear patterns can be attributed to the construction and maintenance of the newly established settlement's households and agricultural plots. Combined with previous analyses of the site's paleoethnobotanical, osteological, and isotopic datasets, the usewear data further indicate a subsistence strategy that balanced foraging and non-intensive maize agriculture. Thanks to their proximity to the Otumba source and other sites exploiting it, Altica residents were able to employ a unifunctional tool-use approach with expedient percussion tools, which contrasts the multifunctional tool-use approaches documented at other Middle Formative sites.

Este artículo se centra en la reconstrucción de las rutas de comunicación que transitaban por una de las áreas menos estudiadas del norte de Chiapas durante el periodo clásico. El resultado es ilustrado a través de un mapa de rutas óptimas, publicado por vez primera, elaborado con auxilio de SIG. Las rutas reconstruidas son además discutidas en el artículo como determinantes para la configuración de la geopolítica local prevaleciente en ese entonces. Este artículo tiene el mérito adicional de reunir toda la información existente que había estado dispersa sobre sitios arqueológicos en esta área de estudio.

Archaeologists have relied almost exclusively upon sight among the five human senses to investigate architecture, features, and artifacts. In recent decades researchers have explored how ancient people may have experienced sound, because it was an essential component of lived experiences in ancient societies. Natural and culturally constructed spaces had acoustical properties that enhanced social, political, economic, and ritual events. This article investigates through the lens of archaeoacoustics the large domed earthen temazcal that residents constructed at Joya de Cerén during the seventh century a.d. Its uniqueness at this Classic-period Maya village in El Salvador has attracted considerable interest due to its exceptional preservation and distinct shape. Fortunately, in 2012, architects were able to construct a precise replica for public access. Through the years, visitors entering the replica have noted how significantly their voices were altered, once inside. To evaluate scientifically these observations, two recordings of sound were made and analyzed acoustically. The earthen dome morphology causes “preferred frequencies” to be sustained for a long time, while nonfavored frequencies diminish quickly. The predominant resonance is at 64 hertz, a tone so low that basso profundo singers can barely achieve it. The internal morphology greatly accentuates voices of mature males, but not those with higher pitches, such as mature females or children. The acoustical environment may have been utilized by men for divination, education, curing, rites of passage, and other functions, some of which have not been previously considered. The nature of the lived experience in a socially charged performance space is explored here with new insights regarding how the sweatbath was vital to all in the community.

Previous studies have interpreted greenstone objects referred to as Olmec “spoon” pendants based on hypothetical utilitarian functions that they might have served. This study argues that the unique form of these pendants is actually based on the shell of the wing oyster (Pteria), a nacreous pearl-forming bivalve found on either coast of Mesoamerica. The study of these skeuomorphic recreations of shells sheds light on conceptual relationships between jade and iridescent shell, as well as the ideological motivations behind such material substitutions. Although wing oyster pendants were produced during only the Formative period, the Classic Maya continued to value pearls, formed by such nacre-producing mollusks. This study demonstrates the frequent appearance of pearls in Mesoamerican artwork. Wing oyster pendants constitute an early basis for the ritual interchangeability of jade, shell, and pearl, and the widespread conceptual associations of these valued materials with breath, wind, and ancestors among later Mesoamerican traditions.

This essay considers the possibility that the Matrícula de Tributos was made from a collection of folios that incorporates material from several related documents, some from as early as the eve of the Spanish invasion in 1521, and others from as late as the 1560s. The diverse styles identifiable throughout the manuscript, as well as the many interventions of different kinds in its pages, support this claim. This article further asks whether the Matrícula de Tributos might be the last extant exemplar of a larger group of taxation-related documents that circulated through Mexico on the eve of the Spanish invasion and well into the second half of the sixteenth century. Finally, the essay considers the possibility of placing the Matrícula de Tributos within the context of documents that kept or presented a record of pre-Conquest tributary practices for purposes that may have been as diverse as presenting evidence of past tributary obligations or as a means to assert authority and other political claims among the surviving native elite.

The Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, Germany, holds a Late Postclassic Mesoamerican bird head sculpture made of wood encrusted with precious stone and shell mosaic. Although known since the nineteenth century, scholars have not given the artifact the attention it deserves. Based on observations made during a thorough in situ inspection, we provide a detailed description of the object, stressing both technological and aesthetic aspects, documented through new photos and reconstructive drawings prepared by Nicolas Latsanopoulos. Then, we offer an interpretation of the artifact's iconography, demonstrating it should be understood as a representation of the Wind God in its manifestation as a Tzitzimitl, a category of deities associated with creation and destruction; an aspect made evident in the small figure adorning the avian forehead. We finally reconstruct the collection history of the object, suggesting that the Giustiniani family, a prominent Roman noble family renowned for its collecting activities, once owned the sculpture; in turn, this proposal might imply that the Dominican friar Domingo de Betanzos brought the mosaic to Italy in 1532 and that it might be originally from the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley or, more broadly, from the south-central area of the modern state of Puebla.

The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Mexico, is an outstanding example of Classic Maya architecture erected in the seventh century as the funerary building for ruler K'inich Janab Pakal. For decades, scholars have speculated on its construction sequence and the potential existence of hidden rooms on either side of Pakal's mortuary chamber. This article aims to advance understanding of the Temple's architectural context in light of new 3D data. After reviewing the application of drone-based photogrammetry and terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging in the Maya area, we argue that these techniques are capable of enhancing the architectural analysis of the Temple of the Inscriptions and showing that this structure was part of a larger architectural project, encompassing the adjacent Temple XIII, and the connecting stepped building platform. Our findings demonstrate that the basal platforms for the Temple of the Inscriptions and Temple XIII were erected contemporaneously and that the design of their mortuary chambers follows a tripartite layout we identified in Palenque's elite funerary architecture and associated mortuary practices. We conclude that these three buildings were part of a mausoleum architectural project, the construction of which was initiated by Pakal to reshape Palenque's site-core and enshrine the ruling family's power and ancestors.

This Special Section provides a glimpse into the vitality of rural investigations in the Maya area by presenting recent archaeological research and interpretive perspectives on the ancient rural Maya. This introduction serves to contextualize the articles of this Special Section within and outside of academic discourse and practice. I start by reviewing the common ways in which rural people and places are essentialized, to underscore that these now unpopular ideas continue to implicitly pervade research priorities, definitions, and interpretations. I then provide a brief historical summary of rural research in the Maya area and some of its significant contributions to our current understandings of ancient rural Maya peoples. Finally, drawing from rural studies, I argue for greater theorization of rurality—including how it was constituted, experienced, perhaps even perceived in the past, and its relationship to periurban, conurban, and urban life, and the continued existence and transformation of rural spaces and lifeways within increasingly urbanized societies. This introduction aims to invigorate further theoretical elaboration with regard to ancient Maya rurality and elicit archaeologists to place themselves and their work within the broader historical and cultural trends of how the rural is perceived and addressed.

El estudio del aprovechamiento animal en las ciudades mayas de tierras bajas ha ido en considerable aumento durante los últimos años, incorporando metodologías que han permitido discernir prácticas de cacería, manejo, y cautiverio de algunas especies. En Palenque, los estudios zooarqueológicos poseen una tradición netamente biológica, los cuáles han sido relevantes para entender el aprovechamiento de la fauna en el sitio. Sin embargo, orientados casi en su totalidad en identificar las especies encontradas, carecen de un enfoque social. Desde 2016, el Proyecto Regional Palenque (PREP) ha llevado a cabo estudios zooarqueológicos en el Grupo IV de Palenque, un conjunto habitacional de élite del clásico tardío, en dónde a través de la flotación de sedimentos se ha recuperado una variada fauna, principalmente peces dulceacuícolas, así como restos botánicos que nos permite una interpretación más detallada de los paleopaisajes que rodeaban los asentamientos y discernir prácticas de manejo de poblaciones animales dentro y en los alrededores de las ciudades mayas.

This article documents the transition from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods at Río Amarillo, a hinterland outpost of the Copan polity, and at an associated residential group, Site 5, in the Río Amarillo East Pocket of the Copan Valley. Late Classic period evidence indicates that the site of Río Amarillo operated as an administrative center for the Copan polity with the likely objective of increased agricultural production for the burgeoning population in the Copan Pocket. In the Terminal Classic period, Río Amarillo shared the fate of Copan, with evidence indicating it was burned and sacked. However, unlike the Copan Pocket, many residential groups remained occupied during the Early Postclassic. Here we focus on Site 5. An unbroken occupation from the Late Classic through to the end of the Early Postclassic period, as this site provides a window into an existence without the requirements of tribute given to their western neighbor. We hypothesize that the smaller settlement size and higher amount of rainfall in this valley pocket, as well as a richer and more diversified environment, were important factors in the survival of some of its population.

In this article, we argue that landesque capital was integral to the development of complexity in the Maya Lowlands. Such features involved permanent investments in the landscape that supported material and ideological practices, resulting in increased sustainability and well-being. We contend that these developments stemmed from accretional modifications to soils in the Preceramic/Early Preclassic, as well as intentional investments of labor in agricultural features, large public works, and select civic complexes during the Middle Preclassic. Capital improvements were particularly important during the Middle Preclassic, when sedentary occupations and civic life were established. The timing and location of the investments strongly correlate with other aspects of Middle Preclassic lifeways, such as the transition to sedentism, acquisition and control of resources, changes in lithic production, and the emergence of an elite class. We note that some of the largest investments in landscape management during the Middle Preclassic occurred in the Central Karstic Uplands, where substantial cities rose in the Late Preclassic. We conclude that during the Middle Preclassic an ontology of landesque capital developed, based on the synergistic fusing of daily and ritual practices with physical features, which provided a foundation for resilience, sustainability, and well-being in subsequent generations.

In this study, we present evidence for the use of slingstones and other projectile stones among the ancient Maya peoples of the Usumacinta River region. Rounded stones are frequently found across Maya archaeological sites and are given a range of interpretations, including objects for flintknapping, cooking, ritual, divination, and less often as weapons. Here we provide new evidence for the identification of rounded stones as weapons based on their morphology as well as their context of recovery. We employ data from the sites of Macabilero, Guatemala, and Budsilha, Mexico, which strongly suggest rounded stones at these sites were manufactured to be used as weapons. These findings have implications for how we understand warfare and hunting in ancient Mesoamerica and inform our interpretation of how the Maya prepared for such activities. As a class of weapon potentially accessible to most members of Maya society, the results presented here show the importance of more inclusive perspectives on Maya warfare and the necessity of contextualizing artifact analysis within the occupation history of the broader site and region.

This study evaluates the degree of correspondence between chronological frameworks implemented in Maya studies and current archaeological evidence, focusing on dynamics in the Preclassic period in the Champotón River drainage, Campeche, Mexico. The earliest ceramics documented in Champotón, dating to the early facet of the Middle Preclassic, were part of a regional tradition that shared decorative modes with contemporary complexes across Mesoamerica. The transition between the early and late facets of the Middle Preclassic was an era of abrupt change, with communities in Champotón participating in the first widespread autochthonous material culture horizon of the Maya Lowlands. The ensuing centuries would be characterized by conservatism and growth, with spatial continuity in settlement locations and homogeneity in material culture through the Late Preclassic. These historical dynamics are not unique to coastal Campeche, but were embedded within broader historical developments during the Middle Preclassic period in the Maya Lowlands. Instead of forcing new evidence into an incongruent chronological framework, this article proposes a revision to the traditional periodization used in the Maya Lowlands.

Considering the Classic Maya lowlands as an intricate landscape of nested settlements with cities, villages, and farmsteads in the middle of agricultural land, the rural/urban conceptual contrast would apparently apply, yet, is still debated. By combining detailed studies of the relationships between populations of both categories, one can better understand what rurality and urbanity meant in ancient Maya societies, and evaluate the dichotomy. Judging by the spatial distribution of architecture and the social dynamics, rural/urban relationships would have reached beyond the scope of agro-economies. Based on the study of La Joyanca (Peten, Guatemala), a medium-sized settlement surrounded by villages and hamlets, this article explores the topic of rurality as contrasted with urbanity through the parameters of potential land use, visible architectural variation, and plausible population mobility. We aim at assessing the relationships between the center and its hinterland as an attempt at furthering the implied concepts.

Los resultados de investigaciones arqueológicas recientes llevadas a cabo en el sitio Nakum, ubicado en el noreste de Guatemala, indican que este centro experimentó una importante evolución cultural, sociopolítica y arquitectónica entre los horizontes pre-Mamom y Mamom (1000–300 a.C.). Las excavaciones arqueológicas permitieron documentar varios edificios y complejos fechados para este periodo, incluyendo un grupo tipo E, una cancha de juego de pelota y un baño de vapor. Asimismo, producto de las excavaciones, se obtuvo una gran colección cerámica de dicha temporalidad, la cual permite—gracias a estudios estilísticos, modales, petrográficos y fisicoquímicos—conocer con mayor detalle los cambios culturales y sociales que tuvieron lugar en el sitio durante el preclásico medio.

Health benefits among the members of state-level societies may vary depending on sex, social privilege, and whether the individual resides in an urban or rural setting. Human skeletal remains are prone to express individual life experiences and, ultimately, well-being. This research elaborates on these correlates by contextualizing the physiological stresses among Classic Maya hinterland populations in comparison to their urban peers. Comparisons are made using the frequencies and expression of enamel hypoplasia, caries, porotic hyperostosis, infectious osteomyelitis/subperiosteal reaction and osteoporosis in 842 adult skeletons of both sexes from 63 peripheral and centric, inland, lowland settlements. The results suggest problematic inland weaning diets and higher infectious load among rural populations. While comparisons between urban and rural lifeways show inconsistent load differences, our results indicate repeated distinctions between the sexes. We cautiously interpret this pattern as an indication of a physically demanding regime of rural life compared to a more sedentary routine among urban peers and gendered lifestyles in general. We conclude that apart from these distinctions (and potential sample biases), the health costs versus benefits impacted rural lifestyles in a complex and non-uniform fashion during the first millennium a.d., rejecting clear-cut hierarchical conceptualizations while inviting more nuanced causal explorations.