It is known that the grid pattern characterizing the city layout of Teotihuacan incorporates two slightly different groups of alignments, skewed approximately 15.5° and 16.5° clockwise from cardinal directions. I argue that these alignments were dictated by deliberate and astronomically functional orientations of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Ciudadela. The two structures recorded sunrises and sunsets on two different sets of dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar composed of intervals that included multiples of 20 days and a 260-day period. The evidence presented suggests also that the location of the Sun Pyramid was not determined by the cave that is now underneath the structure and is probably human-made, but rather by a combination of astronomical and topographic criteria: the place allowed the temple built there to be oriented both to sunrises and sunsets on significant dates and, in the perpendicular direction, to Cerro Gordo to the north; furthermore, sunrises on the so-called quarter-days of the year could be observed from the same spot over a prominent mountain on the eastern horizon. The dates corresponding to the Teotihuacan alignments are attested also at other central Mexican archaeological sites and must have been employed, primarily, for scheduling agricultural and associated ritual activities in the yearly cycle.

A number of previous authors have suggested, based on limited data, that Pachychilus spp., freshwater gastropods often called jute, may have played a role in ancient Maya ritual. Data collected by the authors demonstrate that jute shells consistently appear as part of faunal assemblages in ceremonial caves across the southern Maya Lowlands. At surface sites, jute are often associated with ceremonial architecture, particularly ballcourts. Previous ethnographic accounts are reviewed for clues to ancient Maya jute use. New ethnographic data suggest a role not previously considered by archaeologists. A Q‘eqchi’ Maya informant states that shells are gathered up after meals and deposited in caves as an offering in thanks to “Mother Earth” (Madre Tierra) who provided the mollusks. This practice suggests that the ancient shells may represent a secondary deposition rather than reflecting consumption occurring in the cave. The presence of jute shells may document ancient religious beliefs and ritual activities surrounding an important subsistence resource.

The royal port of Cancuén was a major economic exchange center controlling the nexus of the river and land transport routes between the Maya highlands and lowlands, as well as to the Gulf of Mexico. Given its lack of temples, moderate size, and near absence of direct military activities, it would appear to have been an almost exclusively economic power. However, recent theory has emphasized the seamless connection of ideology and economics. Cancuén provides good examples of the variety of mechanisms of legitimation and control, showing the interactive nature of ideology, ritual, coercion, and economic power. The case of Cancuén is especially illustrative because of the direct nature of its economic resource control and the wide variety of ideological mechanisms used to channel the perceptions and behavior of a broad class of social actors. Furthermore, each mechanism of legitimation appears targeted at a specific aspect of the exchange system. The patterns exemplify the nature of interactions in the Classic period and the devices linking economic rights and ideology.

Two Terminal Formative (ca. 100 B. C.–A.D. 100) domestic areas of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, are compared to examine variability in residential structures, assemblages, and practices, and their correlation to status differences at this midsize regional center during the period of initial central Mexican urbanization and state formation. Combining multiple lines of evidence, the study assesses the applicability of previous frameworks for investigating household status to this particular community. It demonstrates significant differences between elite and commoner residences in architectural elaboration, labor mobilization, access to certain foreign goods, and particular ritual practices, but general similarities in domestic economies and more restrained differentiation informs of personal adornment and domestic ritual. These conclusions are consistent with demarcated lineage ranking but relatively minor wealth accumulation by a more rural elite located peripherally to larger cities and polities.

As one of the most common artifact categories found on Spanish colonial sites, the wheel-made, tin-glazed pottery known as majolica is an important chronological and social indicator for archaeologists. Initially imported from Europe, several manufacturing centers for majolica were set up in the New World by the late sixteenth century. The study of colonial majolica in the Viceroyalty of Peru, which encompassed much of South America, has received less attention than ceramic production and trade in the colonial Caribbean and Mesoamerica. Prior to 1650 the Viceroyalty of Peru was supplied with majolica largely produced in the city of Panama Vieja, on the Pacific. Panama Vieja majolica has been recovered from throughout the Andes, as far south as Argentina. Majolica made in Panama Vieja provides an important chronological indicator of early colonial archaeological contexts in the region. The reproduction of Iberian-style majolica for use on elite tables was symbolically important to the imposition of Spanish rule, and thus Panamanian majolicas also provide an important indicator of elite status on Andean colonial sites.

The Classic-to-Postclassic transition in the Maya Lowlands is a focus of contemporary debate. At the site of Ek Balam, Yucatán, excavation of Structure GS-12 provided an architectural stratigraphy that spans this period. GS-12-sub was a Late Classic (Pure Florescent) building razed during the construction of GS-12-1, a C-shaped structure of a form generally identified with Postclassic occupations on the Yucatán Peninsula. At Ek Balam the building is associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics and dated to the Terminal Classic. These data are in general agreement with the dating of such structures at other lowland sites including Uxmal. We contend that C-shaped structures, when found associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics, are a horizon marker for the Terminal Classic-to-Postclassic transition on the Yucatán Peninsula, and that they illustrate the culture changes that occurred at this still poorly understood boundary. They may be the remains of administrative buildings used by the Maya following the cessation of monumental construction at major centers. Besides contributing to our understanding of the ancient Maya, the implications of this article extend to the general study of collapse and abandonment of complex societies.

This paper is about Monte Negro’s origins, and how this site fits the emerging pattern in studies of Oaxacan urbanization including the Zapotec capital at Monte Albán. Our settlement data from a multivalley regional survey in the Mixteca Alta including Monte Negro allows comparison with other urban centers that we have surveyed. Monte Negro’s origins are due to internal settlement shifts, but occurred in the external context of widespread militarism and multiple urban transitions. Examination of local, regional, and macroregional settlement systems through time reveals variation in urban trajectories that current models were not designed to explain.

In this paper 1 present an intensively dated chrono-stratigraphic sequence for the Cueva Huenul 1 archaeological site, Neuquen Province, Argentina. Located in the inland deserts of northwestern Patagonia, Cueva Huenul 1 offers a remarkable temporal record of events for a largely unstudied desert region. I connect this local record with available data on a macroregional scale to reassess (1) the timing of the first human colonization of the area and its implications for explaining the extinction of megafauna (ca. 14,000-10,000 cal B.P.) and (2) the decrease in human occupation recorded in several South American deserts during parts of the mid-Holocene (ca. 8000-6000 cal B .P.). The data presented here show a gap of about 1,500 calendar years between the extinction of megafauna and the appearance of humans. A review of evidence from the northern Patagonia and southern Cuyo regions is consistent with this record, favoring ecological causes for regional extinction ofmegafaunal taxa. Integration of this record with those indicating the earliest human presence in South America (e.g., Monte Verde, Chile) is consistent with a process of human radiation to the inland Patagonian deserts from nodes of initial occupation. The chrono-stratigraphic sequence from Cueva Huenul 1 also contributes to an assessment of a trough in human occupation along the South American Arid Diagonal around 8000-6000 cal B.P. Evidence for a decrease in occupational intensity during this period is found in the highland and lowland deserts in Mendoza and San Juan, the Puna region in northwestern Argentina, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and possibly the Pampean region. Previous researchers have suggested that persistent arid conditions would have produced increasing landscape fragmentation, particularly affecting desert areas. A more specific understanding of the demographic processes underlying this archaeological signal is needed. In this paper I suggest that this trough reflects not only spatial and social rearrangements, but also a macro-regional demographic retraction. This could have caused a population bottleneck with lasting biological and cultural implications.

The ceremonial architecture of Late Postclassic Mayapán (A.D. 1268–1441) in Yucatán, Mexico, included repetitive arrangements of buildings known as temple assemblages. Archaeological investigations conducted by the Proyecto Maya Colonial in Petén, Guatemala, revealed a pocket of temple assemblages in a zone occupied by the seventeenth century Kowoj Maya. The Kowoj claimed to have migrated from Mayapán sometime after the city’s collapse in A.D. 1441. Indigenous documents also describe Kowoj in Mayapán and linguistic data indicate migrations between Yucatán and Petén as well. A specific variant of temple assemblage defines the location of the Kowoj in both Mayapán and Petén. I argue that these assemblages were the exemplary centers or microcosms of the Kowoj social and physical universe and they were transplanted as the Kowoj re-centered themselves in new or, perhaps, reclaimed lands. The temple assemblages also communicated a prestigious connection with Mayapán and differentiated the Kowoj from their neighbors in Petén.

This article examines the cultural and ecological history of a single Maya territory from circa 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1100. An ancient Maya territory is defined as an area of land and population under the jurisdiction of a particular capital. In addition to the capital, there are minor centers, household groups, and temporary settlements, which together comprise the population of a territory. Here, the San Bartolo-Xultun territory in the northeastern Department of the Peten, Guatemala is used as a case study. During more than two thousand years of occupation the natural landscape and cultural settlement pattern changed dramatically. This study isolates major factors contributing to broad changes in local culture history by employing data from archaeology, geography, remote sensing, epigraphy, and iconography. It is argued that reconstructing regional culture histories using a conjunctive approach should be a major goal of Maya archaeology in the coming years as we strive for a more holistic understanding of the past.

The San Salvador River in northern Chile is a tributary of the Loa, the only river that traverses the Atacama Desert from the mountains to the Pacific. Recent investigations along the San Salvador River revealed the presence of a Formative period village site and associated cemetery approximately 110 km inland from the Pacific Ocean. Bioarchaeological and biogeochemical analyses conducted on human skeletal remains recovered from the San Salvador Cemetery allowed us to better understand the site’s role as an intermediary for coast/interior relations during the Middle Formative (500 B.C.–A.D. 100). Evidence from material culture and human remains at San Salvador suggests that this population was involved in exchange networks that united the oases of the Atacama Desert with the Pacific Ocean. Isotopic data support this notion, as the population demonstrates great variability in both the protein (marine and terrestrial) and carbohydrate components of their diet. During this period, communal economies produced surpluses used in a network of exchange for foods, prestige goods, and ideas. These ties were not coincidental but, rather, part of a regional economic structure that remains only partly explored.

A long-running debate in archaeology is the analytical priority given to local vs. interregional-scale factors in the origins of complex societies. These alternate approaches have often pitted local-scale, environmentally determined models against the large-scale, sociopolitical demands of ancient cities and states. In the archaeology of Oaxaca, Mexico, these distinctions are apparent in efforts to model the impact of Monte Albán on the development of complexity outside the Valley of Oaxaca. Huamelulpan, located in the western Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, was one of Mesoamerica's first urban centers. But despite several decades of intermittent work, the site had never been surveyed, and nearly nothing was known of the surrounding region. A systematic archaeological survey of Huamelulpan and its environs studied the urban transition from a regional perspective. Huamelulpan's urbanization was strongly correlated with the formation of a state-level polity. Interaction with Monte Albán occasioned these developments, albeit in ways more indirect than colonization or conquest. An approach to culture change is outlined that uses archaeological survey data to shift the scale of analysis between local, regional, and interregional levels to interpret the transition to city and state in Oaxaca's Huamelulpan Valley.

Este trabajo aporta información acerca de la cronología y distribución de las mayólicas panameñas, a partir de los datos obtenidos en las excavaciones que se realizan en Panamá La Vieja (1519–1671) y en otros sitios coloniales del continente. Incluye una referencia a los aspectos estilísticos de los tipos definidos, y analiza la incidencia de cada uno de ellos en perspectiva diacrónica. Nuevos datos de localidades con mayólica panameña, permiten circunscribir su distribución a la vertiente pacífica (desde Guatemala hasta Chile), contribuyendo a la verificación de la hipótesis enunciada por Florence y Robert Lister (1974). El trabajo intenta explicar la ausencia significativa de mayólicas producidas en la ciudad de Panamá (costa pacífica del istmo), en las localidades de la costa atlántica, en contraposición a la constante presencia de cerámicas europeas en la ciudad de Panamá (las cuales, durante el auge de la industria local, alcanzaron frecuencias de alrededor del 20%). Tal situación no podría ser entendida tomando únicamente en consideración el alto costo de los fletes transístmicos (los cuales afectaban por igual ambas vías): ante el mismo valor agregado, resultaba socialmente deseable adquirir las mayólicas europeas en la ciudad de Panamá, mas no las panameñas en Portobelo. Resulta clara la existencia de valoraciones sociales diferenciales entre las mayólicas locales versus europeas, modeladoras de preferencias estéticas y hábitos de consumo.

Accounts from the Spanish chronicles regarding Inka record-keeping practices by means of the knotted string devices called khipu (“knot”) indicate that these accounts were compiled in a system of “checks and balances.” Each community in the empire had a minimum of four khipu accountants, all of whom are said by the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega to have kept the same records. This study examines several examples of matching khipu accounts identified among sets of two or three khipu. The identification of matching khipu accounts has been facilitated by the recent development of a khipu database at Harvard University. It is argued that certain three-term numerical sequences recorded in one set of three matching khipu from Chachapoyas, northern Peru, represent a type of numerical signifier that may have served as identity labels of the information recorded in this set of khipu. The long-range objective of this research is to investigate the information recorded on khipu from various provenience zones around the former Inka Empire that may represent the remains of khipu archives.

Recent research on the Tiwanaku state has documented the evolution of regional settlement patterns and agricultural systems, but little is known of changes at the subregional level outside the capital. Analysis of a sequence of domestic occupations excavated at Lukurmata, Bolivia, provides information on how individual households within the Tiwanaku core area were consolidated into the Tiwanaku polity. Changes in residential patterns and artifact assemblages suggest that Lukurmata households were initially connected to the Tiwanaku polity through exchange and religious ties. A new level of assimilation developed in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. These changes, including agricultural intensification, illustrate the increasing integration of individual households into the Tiwanaku political economy and social order as the landscape developed. The nature and timing of these changes are consistent with current hypotheses of a transformation in Tiwanaku political and economic organization near the end of the Tiwanaku IV period (A.D. 400-800).

I criticize recent applications of the “cosmogram” concept to ancient Maya architecture and cities. Although cosmograms—graphic representations of aspects of the cosmos—are known from Late Postclassic and early colonial Aztec and Maya sources, there is no textual suggestion that buildings or cities were viewed as cosmograms. Numerous authors, however, assert confidently that architectural cosmograms abounded in Classic Maya cities. I examine known cosmograms, describe recent studies of architectural cosmograms, and discuss problems that occur when highly speculative interpretations are phrased as confident empirical findings.

Arguments for the cosmological significance of ancient Maya city layouts are plausible, but empirical applications are subjective and lack rigor. I illustrate this contention through brief comments on a recent article by Ashmore and Sabloff. I first discuss some of the complexities and pitfalls in studying cosmology from ancient city plans, and then focus on one component of the authors’ cosmological model—the hypothesized north-south axis at Classic Maya cities. My goal is not to down-play or rule out the role of cosmology in Maya city planning, but rather to encourage the use of explicit assumptions and rigorous methods that will provide the study of Maya city planning with a more secure empirical foundation.

The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses by reporting on excavations on five residential terraces at El Palmillo, one of many large hilltop terraced sites in the valley that collectively housed as much as two-thirds of the region"s Classic period population. Occupied for centuries, the terraces and their associated domestic compounds at El Palmillo underwent a series of coordinated episodes of wall construction, repair, and spatial modification. Craft activities-especially the production of chipped stone tools and maguey fiber for cordage and cloth-were an important part of domestic life. The relative importance of these different household economic activities varied from terrace to terrace, indicating that domestic production was specialized and operated at the household level. Maguey and other xerophytic plants also provided important subsistence resources. Differences in access to nonlocal goods have been documented between terraces, although the extent of such variation is not marked in the present sample. Although preliminary, the El Palmillo findings provide a new empirical basis from which to examine domestic life and the economic and organizational foundations of Classic period hill-top terraced settlements in Oaxaca. These findings reflect on larger issues about the basic economy of later prehispanic Mesoamerica and the articulation of domestic units and household production into larger socioeconomic networks that theoretically extended well beyond ancient Oaxaca.

En el curso de las investigaciones sobre el Paijanense de la costa nor-peruana, se estableció un programa de experimentos de talla de las puntas de proyectil llamadas puntas de Paiján. Diez experimentos de talla fueron realizados con implementos y materiales locales y sistemáticamente documentados: definición de las fases del proceso, tiempo de trabajo, recuento y descripción de todas las lascas-desechos, pesos, características de los productos obtenidos al fin de cada fase. Los resultados proporcionan información de orden económico sobre una actividad importante de los paijanenses y tienen consecuencias socio-culturales. Estos resultados se aplicarán al estudio de talleres arqueológicos ya recolectados. La ausencia de fauna terrestre de gran tamaño en los restos alimenticios de los sitios de vivienda y la morfología especial de las puntas sugieren que aquéllas han sido empleadas para atravesar peces marinos de tamaño mediano a grande, los cuales se encuentran en los basurales arqueológicos.

Cinnabar ore is the source of a bright red pigment (mercury [II] sulfide, HGS), a substance that was highly valued in the Central Andes during prehispanic times. It is traditionally believed to come from Huancavelica in south-central Peru, although some scholars have argued that a prehispanic cinnabar source existed at Azogues near Cuenca in southern Ecuador. It has also been suggested that the cinnabar recovered at archaeological sites in northern Peru such as Baton Grande may have come from this putative Ecuadorian source. In this article, the historical and archaeological evidence supporting this position is evaluated and found to be insufficient to sustain the Ecuadorian Cinnabar Hypothesis. Moreover, recent mercury isotope analysis of archaeological samples from northern Peru supports the earlier hypothesis that the source of the bright red pigment, sometimes referred to as vermilion, was cinnabar ore mined in Huancavelica. This source is located over 850 km to the south of archaeological sites such as Batdn Grande, Chongoyape, and Pacopampa.