The Late Formative period immediately precedes the emergence of Tiwanaku, one of the earliest South American states, yet it is one of the most poorly understood periods in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin (Bolivia). In this article, we refine the ceramic chronology of this period with large sets of dates from eight sites, focusing on temporal inflection points in decorated ceramic styles. These points, estimated here by Bayesian models, index specific moments of change: (1) cal AD 120 (60–170, 95% probability): the first deposition of Kalasasaya red-rimmed and zonally incised styles; (2) cal AD 240 (190–340, 95% probability): a tentative estimate of the final deposition of Kalasasaya zonally incised vessels; (3) cal AD 420 (380–470, 95% probability): the final deposition of Kalasasaya red-rimmed vessels; and (4) cal AD 590 (500–660, 95% probability): the first deposition of Tiwanaku Redwares. These four modeled boundaries anchor an updated Late Formative chronology, which includes the Initial Late Formative phase, a newly identified decorative hiatus between the Middle and Late Formative periods. The models place Qeya and transitional vessels between inflection points 3 and 4 based on regionally consistent stratigraphic sequences. This more precise chronology will enable researchers to explore the trajectories of other contemporary shifts during this crucial period in Lake Titicaca Basin's prehistory.

Previous archaeological studies suggest that terminal Middle Horizon Tumilaca populations (cal A.D. 950–1150) of the middle Moquegua Valley represent direct descendants of earlier Chen Chen-style Tiwankau colonists of the region. This study tests this idea by comparing dentally derived biodistance analyses of Tumilaca, Chen Chen-style, Tiwanaku, and other regional samples. The results indicate that the Tumilaca and Chen Chen-style mortuary samples are similar to one another suggesting that these populations might share an ancestral-descendant relationship. The phenetic relations of the Tumilaca and Chen Chen to other regional samples are also discussed.

Assignment by instrument of Maya obsidian artifacts to geological sources has demonstrated the presence of several sources and variations in their distribution over time and space. Of special interest is the minor, but long-standing, presence of green and gray obsidian from Central Mexico. More attributions of large, carefully selected samples are necessary to continue the considerable progress already achieved in understanding Maya obsidian procurement and use. However, assignment by visual means is not an appropriate method for the Maya area because of the range of optical characteristics exhibited by gray Guatemalan and Central Mexican obsidians, some of which are common to several geological sources. Moreover, the determination of obsidian sources must not be considered an end in itself. Combining source results with behavioral typology and archaeological data can further our understanding of obsidian procurement and use in past cultural context. Finally, it would be helpful if analysts reported trace element composition in a standardized manner, so that archaeologists can easily compare the results from different laboratories.

This report presents the results to date of a three-year archaeological investigation of the Postclassic and early Spanish Colonial Mixtec City of Yucundaa, PuebloViejo de Teposcolula, Oaxaca. It is the first project in Oaxaca to focus specifically on a major prehispanic city and its dramatic transformation during the first three decades of the colonial period. Given the dearth of conventional historical documentation relating to Yucundaa, the site itself serves as a “primary text,” the major source of information regarding its development and operation. The project attempts to define the major components of the settlement, and to examine each as comprehensively as possible in order to form a coherent view of the city's structure and function. At the conclusion of the third season, the encouraging results serve to demonstrate the utility of a well-planned excavation program that from its inception attempts to examine an entire Postclassic-Colonial settlement and the great transformation occurring there between A.D. 1521 and 1550. The research methods, as well as information and insights derived from the project, will provide stimulus and a useful model for the study of other Mesoamerican urban settlements.

La cueva de El Gigante en las tierras altas de Honduras fue ocupada tan temprano como 10,000 años a.P. y da información previamente desconocida sobre la prehistoria de Honduras. Las condiciones climáticas secas resultan en una excelente preservación de esta área residencial. Las excavaciones documentaron una clara secuencia de ocho estratos culturales bien definidos que contienen hogares, así como depósitos densos de lítica, y restos microbotánicos y faunísticos. Basándose en métodos de fechamiento de radiocarbon convencional y AMS, se identificaron tres horizontes culturales distintos. La ocupación más antigua es de la fase Esperanza, la cual representa ocupación del Arcaico Temprano que se extiende entre 10,040–9100 a.P. La segunda es la fase Marcala que corresponde al periodo Arcaico Medio, entre 7350–6050 a.P. La tercera y más reciente ocupación en estas cuevas es en la fase Estanzuela, entre 3900–1500 a.P. El Gigante fue usado como residencia durante los dos periodos del Arcaico. Varias puntas de proyectil largas fueron recuperadas en niveles estratigráficos claramente identificados como del Paleoindio. El examen de los datos faunísticos muestra que, mientras disminuyen los huesos de mamíferos grandes, aumentan los de mamíferos de menor tamaño y los de animales no mamíferos. Una gran cantidad de maíz (Zea sp.) está presente en el sitio durante el periodo Estanzuela. La variedad de materiales de comida encontrados entre la transición sugiere el mantenimiento a largo plazo de una amplitud dietética en el contexto de una economía flexible y mezclada. El Gigante es un sitio que revela información clave en relación a la colonización inicial de Centroamérica y la incorporación de especies domesticadas dentro de una base de forrajeo que acompaña a la transición a la agricultura.

We investigate ground stone tools, specifically manos and metates, throughout the Bladen region of the Maya Mountains of Belize and adjacent areas during the Late and Terminal Classic periods. Because of the distinctiveness and relative heterogeneity of rock types in the Bladen region, we can pinpoint the Bladen communities that exploited the raw materials used in manufacturing manos and metates utilized in other communities. Based on mano and metate fragments that were recovered from the Bladen communities, as well as from communities outside the Bladen region, we reconstruct an intercommunity network within the Bladen region and investigate communities outside of the Bladen to which the Bladen communities were directly or indirectly linked. This investigation shows that if enough geo-specific information is available, it is possible to reconstruct a relatively accurate picture of inter-community relations. Moreover, it is shown that the Bladen region was a valuable source of ground stone for the Maya Lowlands and the Bladen communities were integral players in its exploitation.

The San Pedro de Atacama oases have been permanently occupied since ca. 2500 B.P. and over this time developed a rich culture that was intertwined with social developments in the south-central Andes. However, despite decades of archaeological research, the region still lacks a strong chronological framework based on absolute dates. Here we present 53 new AMS 14C dates from osteological remains from San Pedro de Atacama, in order to contribute to an understanding of the Atacameño cultural sequence. These dates suggest that some cemeteries were occupied for long periods, frequently transcending cultural phases, and that in fact a number of cemeteries within the same ayllu were in use concurrently. We also show that, not surprisingly, population displacement through time primarily follows oscillations in the sources of water. The new information presented here suggests that future work in the region should emphasize detailed analyses that consider intra-ayllu variability, given that diversity within periods is masked by the uniform use of cultural phases to describe human development.

Archaeologists frequently assume that when cultures interact with each other the most complex partner dominates the transactions. We propose that this is a misleadingly simple view of a complex process. A framework for modeling intersocietal interaction and understanding its sociopolitical consequences is outlined here. This theoretical structure calls attention to who is actually involved in the interaction process, how these transactions are carried out, and what the goals of the contact partners are. The complex material patterns from two neighboring areas of Late Classic (A. D. 600-950) southeast Mesoamerica are then examined using the proposed model to see what insights into ancient interaction processes it can provide.

Excavations at La Sufricaya, a minor ritual group in the outskirts of the Lowland Maya city of Holmul, have documented two mural paintings inside an elite building of Early Classic date (A.D. 300–A.D. 600). One of the paintings is mythological in nature (Mural 9). The second bears an inscription with references to calendrical and historical events. It commemorates a notorious arrival date at Tikal on 11 Eb 15 Mak (January 16, A.D. 378) on its first anniversary. The architecture and artifacts associated with the murals combine Maya and Teotihuacan decorative motifs, and offer several parallels with Tikal assemblages. The iconography, epigraphy, and archaeological associations of these murals are discussed in relation to the function of the palace complex. This important new evidence contributes to an understanding of which role relations with Teotihuacan may have played in regional politics in the Maya Lowlands during the Early Classic period from the point of view of a smaller site. The interpretations presented here focus on the concept of political intervention of Tikal in the affairs of secondary and tertiary sites.

El artículo presenta la localización de 10 canteras de ágata traslúcida descubiertas en la Región Arqueológica Catalanes Nacientes Arapey (RACNA), definiendo una zona de abastecimiento de ágatas en el norte de Uruguay. Esta materia prima es el segundo recurso lítico más utilizado en los contextos estratigráficos tempranos datados por ¹⁴C en el noroeste de Uruguay, luego de la arenisca silicificada. Se analiza la frecuencia-distribución de ágata traslúcida en dos sitios residenciales de cazadores-recolectores tempranos, Pay Paso 1 (11,000-8500 a.P.), sitio K87 (10,420 a.P.), y en un sitio canterataller Catalán Seco 1 (CS-1). Se presenta una sólida base cronológica para el sitio Pay Paso 1 que incluye 32 fechas ¹⁴C lo que permitió reconocer tres componentes tempranos donde se registra una tecnología orientada hacia la producción de hojas durante el inicio de ocupación de Pay Paso 1 (10,930-10,880 a.P.). El trabajo discute las formas principales de aprovisionamiento del ágata traslúcida durante el poblamiento de Uruguay, que se relacionan con la accesibilidad del recurso, la tecnología lítica, el territorio y la movilidad de los cazadores-recolectores tempranos de la región. Se registran desplazamientos de entre 140-170 km desde sitios residenciales hasta la zona de aprovisionamiento de ágata.

Recently obtained radiocarbon determinations from the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, have made it possible to revise the chronological placement of the Perdido phase (from 600-200 B. C. to 750-300 B. C.) and the Lomas phase (from 200 B. C.-A. D. 200 to 300 B. C.-A. D. 200), the latter being the phase for which substantial evidence of a Zapotec conquest of the Cañada has been recovered. The revised chronology brings the Lomas phase into close alignment with the Late Monte Albán I (300-100 B. C.) and the Monte Albán II (100 B. C.-A. D. 200) phases, during which the early Zapotec state emerged with its capital at Monte Albán in the Oaxaca Valley. The new Cañada dates support the proposition that territorial expansion outside the Oaxaca Valley played a major role very early in the process of Zapotec primary state formation. This strategy of extra-Valley expansion appears to have been initiated before all areas within the Oaxaca Valley were fully integrated into the Zapotec state.

Chiconautla, situated on the northeastern shore of Lake Texcoco and the southern edge of the Teotihuacan Valley, lay at an important juncture for east-west exchange in the Basin of Mexico with connections to asfar away as the Gulf Coast. Recently, we completed an INAA study on ceramics from Chiconautla to examine marketing and exchange patterns from A. D. 950 to 1521. We present these data and contextualize them in light of contexts excavated at the site by George C. Vaillant, in particular materials from an Aztec noble residence he called “Casa Reales.” We also examine historical information regarding Chiconautla’s role in Aztec society as it existed at the eve of Spanish conquest. We evaluate the site’s particular position at the crossroads of important trade routes in light of recent models of Aztec markets and exchange and what these patterns say about shifting political affiliations in this critical region.

Moholy-Nagy (1990) has argued that concentrations of chipped-stone debitage from mesoamerican sites, including Colhá, Belize, represent dumps and not workshops as we have suggested (Shafer and Hester 1983, 1986). She emphasizes microdebitage as the most reliable indicator of workshop location. Her argument is supported by the use of ethnoarchaeological accounts of debitage deposition from stone- and glass-artifact manufacture. Our alternative view is that microdebitage is only one of several criteria for identifying the loci of intensive stone-tool making. The Colhá data are also used to demonstrate variability in behaviors related to the formation of debitage deposits and the visibility of workshop activity. We contend that identifying precise manufacturing loci is less important than assessing the overall scale of production at a site and that site"s role in regional settlement systems.

Recent investigations at the site of Xuenkal on the plains north of Chichén Itzá provide evidence of the changing regional political environment during the Terminal Classic Period (A.D. 900–1000). This paper examines a collection of spindle whorls recovered during the 2005, 2006, and 2007 field seasons of the Proyecto Arqueológico Xuenkal (PAX) as evidence for intensification of craft production. Through this analysis and comparison with spindle whorl collections from other Lowland Maya sites, we suggest the inhabitants of Xuenkal rapidly adapted to changing economic demands by increasing the amount of cloth produced in their residential settings, perhaps in response to increased tribute demands that emanated from the dominant political power of the region. Spinning and weaving is associated with the female gender during the Classic Period in Mesoamerica. Thus, intensification of this gendered activity not only produced excess materials for the state, but also reinforced its gender ideology. Analysis of these artifacts adds to the knowledge of Maya cloth production and addresses the nature of Chichén Itzá's influence on regional sites during the height of its influence in the Terminal Classic period.

The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values (δ13C, δ15N) of collagen and the carbon isotope value of structural carbonate in bioapatite were measured in the bones and teeth of Early Classic to Historic period Maya buried at Chau Hiix, Belize. Diet at Chau Hiix comprised a mixture of resources but contained an unusual amount of protein from high trophic levels. There were no differences between the diets of males and females, and there were no consistent changes in diet from birth to age 12. However, children consumed more maize than adults during all time periods. Similarities in general diet and temporal changes at Chau Hiix, Lamanai, and Altun Ha suggest their participation in a regional socioeconomic system. The diets of the highest-status Early Classic individuals at Chau Hiix, Lamanai, and Altun Ha were different from one another and from those of other individuals buried at their respective sites. We suggest that elites created or attempted to create hierarchies of food consumption within sites during the Classic period and that a heterarchy existed among elites from different sites. During the Postclassic period the major protein component of the Chau Hiix diet shifted from terrestrial animal and/or freshwater resources to reef resources, which suggests increased associations with coastal sites. Temporal changes in diet at Chau Hiix closely paralleled changes at Lamanai, but diets at the two sites were distinct during all time periods.

This paper analyzes the biographical and related archaeological information of 10 artificially shaped skulls from the broader Maya area, which bear resemblance to the high and narrow head morphology depicted in Olmec art. The skeletal evidence of this head form, which was accomplished by combining compression cradleboards with constricting horizontal wraps (tabular erect type in its pseudo-circular variety), is rare and predates A.D. 250 in all cases. Here I compare the cranial vaults shaped in this fashion with that of 49 other Preclassic period Maya indivisuals from different parts of the Maya world. The discussion explores the possible evolving social and religious roles of this emblematic body modification. I argue that Olmecoid head modification was a syncretic cultural adoption, since it was just one of many expressions of a deeply embedded Preclassic tradition, still practiced centuries after the demise of Olman’s societies themselves. The visible effect of the artificial pear-shaped heads most likely reflected gradual shifting ideological schemes, probably emulating early versions of the Maya Maize God, given the resemblance to Preclassic period renderings of this supernatural force.

Recent archaeological study of the architecture at the Wari site of Pikillacta provides information concerning the function of one of three basic Wari architectural forms. These buildings, called Type II niched halls, occur at both Pikillacta and Viracochapampa, the two largest known Wari provincial sites. Their function can be deduced from a variety of evidence: data from excavations and associated artifacts, analogy with earlier, contemporary, and later Andean ritual/ceremonial buildings, and representations of buildings in Wari art. Based on this analysis, the niched halls apparently served as lineage halls where both real and fictive kin came to formally worship their ancestors. It is suggested that co-option of conquered elites by adoption, and thereby establishing a set of reciprocal obligations, may have been a strategy practiced by the Wari as a principal feature of their statecraft.

The absence of suitable methodologies to distinguish between wild and domesticated camelids in rock art has limited the interpretation of visual preferences of Andean prehispanic cultures. Although rock art’s contextual information may provide some indications that help to differentiate between wild and domesticated animals, uncertainty prevails because the relation to camelid forms is indirect. Zoological and zooarchaeological knowledge of South American camelid morphology is used as a means of comparison and identification in Atacama Desert rock art attributed to the Initial Pastoral phase (1500–500 B.C., Early Formative period, northern Chile). Based on this analysis, there are strong arguments for a distinctive graphic representation of wild as opposed to domesticated camelids, as well as a correspondence of these representations to two different modes of subsistence—one of hunters and the other of husbandry-pastoralist societies—which would have coexisted during this transitional period.

Recent excavations have revealed Early Formative platforms at the site of Paso de la Amada on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Platforms supported large, perishable structures up to 22 m long. These structures were not arranged in plaza groups or ceremonial precincts, but were scattered across the site. One of their functions may have been to control or integrate social units within the village, such as neighborhoods or lineages. It remains uncertain, however, whether these large buildings were residences for high-status families or public buildings shared by neighborhood members. From 1400 to 1250 B.C. a number of contemporary platforms probably served similar functions at the site, each in a separate segment of the community. Increasingly, however, these functions were centralized at a single large structure (Mound 6). This centralization persisted until 1100 B.C., when Mound 6 was abandoned and segmental social units emerged once again.

This study examines archaeofaunal materials contained within a large bell-shaped prehistoric pit from the site of Pechichal (M3B4-011) in northern Manabí Province of lowland western Ecuador. This feature provides a high resolution archaeological context for understanding assemblage accumulation and deposition, and provides important data for inferring local environmental conditions. The archaeofaunal assemblage can be divided into two distinct groups based upon the vertical representation of its skeletal remains throughout the pit. One group, characterized by variable skeletal representation and vertical concentration, likely includes both culturally disposed and naturally entrapped taxa. The other group, characterized by a few isolated fragments, low skeletal completeness, and dispersion in vertical profile, is likely dominated by culturally disposed taxa. When the natural histories of the pit faunas are considered along with their distinct numerical representation, the entire pit assemblage makes ecological sense. The data suggest that the pit was located at the edge of a modified forest fragment.