Para evaluar la ocupación precolombina de la cuenca del Qaracha, realizamos una prospección arqueológica en 1988, la cual produjo evidencias de tres importantes ocupaciones en el área, la primera, baja dominación del estado wari, alrededor de los años 600 D.C., con todos los asentamientos entre 2.800 y 3.650 m snm, teniendo control de los suelos de cultivo identificados con la producción del maíz. Alrededor de los años 900 D.C. todos los sitios wari fueron desocupados, y nuevos sitios se habían construido en posiciones estratégicas en las partes de mayor elevación. El control de los Andes centrales por parte de los inkas resultó en el abandono de los sitios fortificados y la fundación de establecimientos inka (mitimaes) cerca a los antiguos sitios wari. Creemos que el primer cambio fue resultado del colapso del estado wari, seguido por un período muy conflictivo cuando diferentes antiguos integrantes del estado wari se vieron envueltos en guerra. El cambio final puso fin al período convulsionado con el nacimiento del nuevo estado inka en los Andes.

The discovery of the fully developed Formative sites of Cotocallao (ca. 3750-2350 cal. B.P.) in the Quito Basin and La Chimba (ca. 2650-1700 cal. B.P.) in the northern highlands of Ecuador has raised questions about their cultural antecedents, which have not been resolved despite decades of archaeological work in the region. Paleoenvironmental coring investigations were conducted at Lake San Pablo in northern highland Ecuador to determine the date for the onset of prehistoric maize farming in the temperate highland valleys of this region. The investigations included analysis of lake sediments for pollen, phytoliths, diatoms, and tephra. Maize pollen was identified as early as 4900 cal. B.P., while maize phytoliths dated even earlier, to 6200 or 6600 cal. B.P. These results demonstrate a long history of maize farming in valleys around Lake San Pablo, but in the context of a punctuated record of major and minor volcanic eruptions. It is concluded that early horticultural sites predating Cotocallao and La Chimba must exist, but to find such sites, archaeologists will have to locate and study deeply buried A-horizon soils.

For the last two decades, archaeologists have believed that a ceramic type known as Indígena Ware was an imitation of European majolica, produced by colonial Nahuas in Mexico City for lower-class Spanish families. Ideas surrounding the production and consumption of Indígena Ware, as well as majolica in general, have been based on the concepts of Spanish domination and indigenous acculturation. These ideas emphasize European interests in displaying high-value imports to obtain distinction along racial and class lines, and fail to consider indigenous strategies for obtaining power through craft production and display. We begin by critically evaluating the stylistic, iconographic, and technical evidence archaeologists have used to suggest that Indígena Ware was an indigenous product. We present the results from neutron activation analysis of 250 ceramic sherds indicating that Indígena Ware forms its own compositional group, different from Aztec pottery and Spanish majolica, and suggest that Indígena Ware is most likely a Spanish import. The problems this ware presents for classification reveal the limitations of locating power exclusively in the hands of the Spanish and point to ways in which we could overcome this theoretical problem for the study of colonialism in Mexico.

Paleoethnobotanical analyses of samples excavated at Los Naranjos, Honduras, provide an unprecedented record of the diversity of plants used at an early center with monumental architecture and sculpture dating between 1000 and 500 B.C. and contribute to understandings of early village life in Mesoamerica. Los Naranjos is the major site adjacent to Lake Yojoa, where analysis of an important pollen core suggests very early clearing of the landscape and shifts in the relative prevalence of certain plants over time, including increases in maize. Our results from starch grain, phytolith, and macrobotanical analysis complicate interpretation of previous pollen core dates, suggesting that maize was not as central as expected to the early inhabitants of the settlement. Moreover, with identification of macrobotanical remains recovered from flotation of sediments and extraction of microbotanical remains from adhering sediments and the surfaces of obsidian tools, we can compare the potential of each analysis in interpretations of plant use. No single method would have allowed recovery and identification of all the plants documented across sample types. The presence of botanical residues on the obsidian tools provides direct evidence of processing. Even in the small sample analyzed, we can recognize tools used exclusively for culinary processing, tools used only for non-culinary tasks, and multi-purpose tools.

The Dawson seriation of Nasca ceramics has long been assumed to be an accurate marker of temporal changes in the prehispanic south coast of Peru. We test this assumption by directly dating a sample of sherds using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). Our results suggest that while some phases of the seriation are valid chronological markers, others appear to be the result of factors other than time. We discuss the implications of these results and call for additional studies of ceramics using luminescence dating

We use a provincial perspective combined with compositional and stylistic data and historic accounts to propose three provincial strategies for imperial interactions—bolstering, resistance, and emulation—and note a fourth, exodus. A sample of three Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1350–1521) pottery types differs in chemical composition between two localities in south-central Veracruz, Mexico. Sherds from the Aztec provincial capital of Cuetlaxtlan along the lower Cotaxtla River are compared to those from the Lower Blanco River where Callejón del Horno is located. The composition of stamped-base bowls, Texcoco Molded censers, and Aztec III-style Black-on-orange bowls is distinct in samples from the two localities, with only scant evidence of exchange. A few vessels of Aztec III Black-on-orange were imported from the Basin of Mexico to Cuetlaxtlan. The stylistic characteristics on Aztec III-style Black-on-orange vessels do not distinguish the two Veracruz localities, but there are differences between them and illustrated vessels from the Basin of Mexico. The Cuetlaxtlan province was subject to unusual imperial investments, which may account partly for the emulation of imperial styles. Despite documentary evidence of rebellions, another factor was local decisions to use a prestigious exogenous style.

Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a precolumbian Maya city located at the base of the highlands in the lowlands of west-central Guatemala. It is the only Classic-period center in the southern Maya Lowlands that based its economy on the production of an important raw material for export: salt. Because of its economic role and its location along a major trade route, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros had a particularly long history of occupation. The site has evidence of a large sedentary population starting during the Middle Preclassic (by ca. 800 B.C.) that continued several hundred years beyond the Classic collapse, before finally being abandoned ca. A.D. 1200. The salt source was located in the center of the city. This presents a rare opportunity to test the degree of elite control over the production of a non-elite resource. Production during the Classic period does appear to have been tightly controlled by elites, as evinced by the presence of multiple administrative structures and elite tombs throughout the salt-working zone, located less than 100 mfrom the site epicenter.

Incised-engraved pottery and clays from the Malpaso Valley region of northwest Mexico are chemically characterized to investigate the nature of residential organization of the capital settlement, La Quemada, during the Epiclassic period, ca. A.D. 600-900. Scanning-electron microprobe analysis of 115 pottery and 10 clay samples from settlements in the valley, and from middens associated with the civic-ceremonial core of La Quemada and flanking residential terraces, identifies locations of pottery production and indicates patterns of pottery circulation. The distribution of pottery at La Quemada, manufactured in specific outlying settlements, suggests that the social composition of the polity was reproduced in microcosm at the site, and that activities in civic-ceremonial zones involved a greater degree of separation among social groups than those in flanking residential areas.

This paper explores certain methodological issues relevant to the interpretation of archaeological data derived from surface survey. Recognizing the significance of survey to the study of regional settlement patterns, I argue that how we classify these data bears directly on our ability to reconstruct the past. Comparison of site typologies created by the Seibal and Copán projects with their excavation results provides a way to evaluate the accuracy of site classifications based on surface features. I discuss the effectiveness of the typologies in capturing variation pertinent to the study of social organization and site function, and consider the importance of variation within sites, within types, and across types not expressed in the typologies to suggest that such elaborate typologies assume a higher degree of data visibility than is generally possible. The analysis underscores the critical role excavation plays in mesoamerican archaeology as a source of data unavailable through survey.

The archaeological record in the Negro River in central Uruguay Republic is remarkable for its richness, including the presence of a significant number of Paleoindian fishtail points. As part of ongoing research on the earliest human occupations in this region, luminescence dating is applied to develop a terminal Pleistocene-Holocene regional chronology. Eight ages were derived from six samples taken from sedimentary fluvial deposits from two sites near the city of Paso de los Toros. The resulting dates span 11.8 and 1.04 ka corresponding to the Late Pleistocene and the whole Holocene. Because the chronology of the sedimentary sequences spanning these ages is poorly known, the presented results become a significant contribution to the construction of a chronostratigraphy sequence in the area. The results also show how single-grain dating can distinguish different components of mixed assemblages.

This paper contributes to scholarship on continental fish exploitation in arid zones in South America by exploring fish consumption by humans in prehispanic times using available zooarchaeological evidence from two wetlands in central western Argentina: Llancanelo and Guanacache lagoons. Analyzing the exploitation of this resource lets us discuss the intensification process that has been proposed for this area. Ichthyoarchaeological and archaeofaunistic information is integrated and compared to reveal that the oldest incidence of fish exploitation (ca. 3000 years B.P.) is from the Llancanelo lagoon. Fish consumption seems to have been practiced since the first occupations in both the wetlands and may reflect an adaptation to the new environment. Contrary to our expectations, temporal trends in abundance and diversity indexes do not show differences between the areas in intensification processes. We conclude that fish represent a major resource for sustenance both in Guanacache and in Llancanelo lagoons, although its exploitation was complemented with consumption of other small animals.

Cueva la Conga, recorded in June 2006, is the first limestone cave in Nicaragua reported to contain prehistoric rock paintings, culturally modified natural formations called speleothems, and artifacts. Located in northcentral Nicaragua in the Department of Jinotega, Cueva la Conga is the farthest south on the Mesoamerican periphery that a cave of this type has been reported, and it extends our knowledge of ritual cave use, including cave painting and speleothem modification, to include Nicaragua. Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal in five samples of the paint, the first such dating of Nicaraguan rock art, yielded calibrated dates from cal A.D. 680—905 to cal A.D. 1403—1640. The baseline data provided by Cueva la Conga are of great importance for regional rock art analysis and for our growing understanding of regional and Nicaraguan prehistory. More archaeological survey and excavations in the area will be key in establishing a firm cultural context for the rock art and ritual cave use found at Cueva la Conga.

This paper explores the diverse human practices related to the use of animals during the Inca occupation of west Tinogasta (Catamarca, Argentina). We argue that the Inca state sponsored festivities in the San Francisco site (transitional puna of Chaschuil), where wild animal meat, mainly meat and bone marrow of adult vicuñas, was shared and consumed. These wild camelids were captured during the chaku, a collective hunting regulated by social and cultural mechanisms. Llamas were used as beasts of burden in caravans transporting ceramic vessels (aríbalos and aribaloides) from the pottery production center of Batungasta to San Francisco. We postulate that the aríbalos and aribaloides, which were designed for alcoholic beverages, were lined with camelid bone marrow to make their inner walls impermeable. Lastly, we argue that bones of birds and rodents were used to and the skin of a puma (important symbolic animal for the Incas) was processed in the San Francisco site.

This study examines the relationship between agricultural intensification and social complexity in past societies using a diachronic, contextualized population, the Nasca of the southern coast of Peru (A.D. 1–750). Using stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen, we tested social assumptions arising from the relationship between agricultural intensification and social complexity during the Nasca’s cultural fluorescence, including the construction of underground filtration galleries (puquios). Our data show that while agricultural intensification may have spurred social complexity in the Nasca region, it engendered few significant differences in access to foodstuffs. High status individuals in Nasca society had access to more meat than low status individuals, especially during time periods characterized by more social conflict, increasing trade routes, and agricultural intensification. Meat consumption may have been an important marker of status identity among the Nasca. Nasca elites, however, did not control access to agricultural products such as maize as effectively as they did meat. These dietary data support the contention that an indigenous process of innovation and intensification was the major catalyst to later social complexity in the Nasca population from the Las Trancas Valley.

As dates of earliest use of Theobroma cacao in ancient Mesoamerica are established, interest is shifting to how cacao was used. One approach is to consider combinations of ingredients—the recipes for ancient cacao use. Beverages made from cacao seeds and maize have a long history in Mesoamerica. We began testing the hypothesis that there is qualitative evidence of this beverage type in the Postclassic archaeological record in a region where such a beverage, tejate, is a culturally significant food today. We looked for evidence of tejate ingredients in residue samples from eight Postclassic and one contemporary vessel from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Detection of morphologically specific maize phytoliths was accomplished by taxonomic analysis and comparison with a reference collection. Tejate ingredients Pouteria sapota and Quararibea funebris were also processed for phytolith detection. Testing for methylxanthines characteristic of Theobroma species used high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Four vessels were positive for maize phytoliths; three were positive for theobromine; two were positive for both maize and cacao. No diagnostic phytoliths were identified for the other tejate ingredients. Our hypothesis was supported; still, many challenges are present in the search for a deeper understanding of ancient cacao usage in this region of Mesoamerica.

Public architecture emerged in conjunction with the development of early complex societies and is therefore a key feature for understanding them. Anthropogenic mounds and platforms in southern Chile dated to the Late Ceramic Period (AD 1000–1550), and historic indigenous inhabitants (AD 1550–present) are the southernmost manifestation of public architecture in the Americas. We report the results from excavation of an architectural complex on Mocha Island that covers an area of ~9.2 ha and a volume of ~43,000 m3. This paper describes its construction dynamics, placing its origin at around AD 1000, a moment of significant sociopolitical and economic changes in southern Chile. We then associate information obtained from this site with similar complexes on mainland southern Chile to locate this phenomenon within a more regional comparative context.

The Inca expansion to the southern Andes catalyzed important political and symbolic changes in local communities. In addition to economic changes in mining production and the installation of logistical and administrative infrastructure, new forms of ideological violence emerged in the Copiapó Valley, Chile. One new form was the display and discarding of human heads, a burial pattern unprecedented in the region. In this article, we present evidence of perforated heads buried without grave goods next to a local cemetery in a Late Horizon village. We argue that the performative use of modified severed heads from young individuals at the Iglesia Colorada site was part of Inca ritual practices. Their use represented an effort to ideologically rule over newly incorporated subjects by demonstrating power and ensuring their compliance.

Initial Spanish colonization of the Central Andes and efforts to transform indigenous society were highly dependent on local social and geographic conditions. In the Colca Valley of southern Peru, Franciscan friars established a series of doctrinas (settlements for the conversion and doctrinal instruction of the indigenous population) at former Inka imperial outposts during the mid-1540s. The inhabitants of one of these doctrinas—the site today known as Malata (ca. A.D. 1545–1573)— were subject to one of the earliest mendicant evangelical campaigns in the Central Andean highlands. In addition to religious indoctrination and significant spatial reconfiguration of the village, Spaniards attempted to alter systems of domestic production related to the rearing and consumption of animals. They also imposed new tribute demands. Despite considerable transformations of the architecture and attendant changes in daily life at Malata, zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains from a variety of contexts provides no indication of the introduction of Eurasian animals to Malata nor the alteration of either indigenous husbandry practices or the consumption of food animals. Ceramic iconography and the abundance of weaving tools suggest that Spaniards built on the local system of camelid husbandry to extract textiles and metallurgical goods as tribute during the first generation of colonial occupation.

Although dendrochronological methods have the potential to provide precise calendar dates, they are virtually absent in Mesoamerican archaeological research. This absence is due to several long-standing, but erroneous, assumptions: that tree rings in this region do not reflect annual growth and environmental variability, that an adequate number of samples do not exist, and that tree-ring measurements cannot be useful without modern trees to link prehispanic chronologies. In this article we present data from the sites of La Quemada and Los Pilarillos, located in the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, to demonstrate that suitable archaeologically derived samples of dendrochronologically useful species do exist, that the samples from these sites are measurable and cross-datable, and that the tree rings can yield precise calendar dates using a method that “wiggle-matches” radiocarbon dates on tree-ring sequences. The work demonstrates the potential of these methods to address chronological, and, in the future, climatic questions, which have so far eluded archaeological work in the region.

The Preceramic archaeological record of highland Mesoamerica is biased toward rockshelter sites. We advocate more fieldwork in streamside settings, where open-air sites are likely to be found for reasons related both to the systemic context of hunter-gatherer lifeways and to the geoarchaeological context of site burial and preservation. Predicting site location requires attention to the peculiar nature and behavior of incised ephemeral streams (barrancas) and to the complex alluvial stratigraphic sequences that they leave behind. Four case studies—from the Mexican states ofTlaxcala, México, Morelos, and Oaxaca—reconstruct the geometry and age structure of late Quaternary alluvium from exposures in cutbanks, brickyards, and purposefully dug trenches. We identify deeply buried locales with the remains of extinct megafauna, intentionally set fires, and lithic debitage. We distinguish between geographical areas, stream reaches, and time intervals that do or do not hold much promise for further research. The fragmentary nature of the alluvial record and the paucity of sites can be explained by changes in stream behavior wrought by agricultural land use and are conditioned by the intensity and antiquity of agriculture in any given area. Deposits and sites of Paleoindian age may be more commonly preserved than those of Archaic age.