Since at least 1742, the mineralogical collection of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris has hosted, under the reference number 22.U, a biconvex lens-shaped obsidian artifact, also described as a mirror, measuring 250 mm in diameter and finely polished on both faces. It has usually been ascribed to the shipment sent by Hernán Cortez in 1522 to the Emperor Charles V, which was captured by a French privateer. We investigated the object using modern techniques. The elemental composition of the obsidian determined by the particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) method showed that the raw material originates from the Mullumica deposit (Ecuador). Documentary investigations revealed that the lens (renumbered No. 176.101) was sent in 1737 from Quito, Ecuador (at that time part of the viceroyalty of Peru), to France by members of the Godin–La Condamine geodesic expedition (1735–1743). The mirror is thus among the rare Ecuadorian archeological or colonial artifacts to have reached the Old World during the eighteenth century.

Most archaeological research on the impact of Inka imperialism at the domestic level centers on the intrusion of Inka-style buildings into pre-Inka domestic settlements as transforming the experience of domestic life and actively hindering interhousehold interaction. Results from excavations in the site of Ampugasa in Huarochirí (Lurín valley, Lima, Peru) show that pre-Inka residential spaces (patio-groups) were replaced by enclosures with a single access to an internal patio for domestic activities. My analysis shows that pre-Inka houses were ritually closed, directly connected to the site's ritual core, and remained part of the everyday life experience of people in the settlement. I argue that Ampugasa's transformation corresponds to a pattern of Inka imperialism in Huarochirí that enshrined rather than erased the collective ritual practices through which the people of Huarochirí maintained a broad regional identity. I propose that the interplay between Inka transformation of domestic space in Ampugasa and the continuity of ritual and secular practices among the site's inhabitants shows a space of negotiation where Inka imperialism still relied heavily on local practices that fostered the continuity of collective identities.

In this study, we present new data from the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah in southern Mexico. These data, which are drawn from lidar-based GIS analysis, field inspection, and the excavation of two small, closed depressions, suggest that many of this site's features served a dual function. Quarrying to extract construction materials left behind closed depressions that were then sealed to create household reservoirs. We classify these water-storage features as quarry-reservoirs. The ubiquity of these small quarry-reservoirs represented an important community water source outside the sphere of direct elite control.

In Brazil, as in most countries, history and natural history museums are the repositories of rich collections of excavated archaeological material. One of the major challenges in working with these collections is the paucity of information available regarding the original excavations, which raises important questions that archaeologists and museum studies professionals have been grappling with for several decades: what interpretive value do these collections have without any contextual information, and are they worth maintaining in museum archives that are facing continuing crises in space and resources? This article uses the concepts of entanglement and assemblage to discuss a collection of ceramics excavated from one of the first Spanish Jesuit missions in colonial Paraguay, San Ignacio Miní (1610–1631), and housed at the Museu Paranaense in Curitiba, Brazil. Despite the lack of contextual information from the 1963 excavation, we can begin to explore the entangled pasts, present, and future of these objects by tracing the trajectory of the collection from the initial formation through excavation and contemporary analysis. Innovative approaches are needed to address methodological and theoretical concerns in analyzing archaeological museum collections to ensure that the knowledge and potential insights entangled in these collections are not lost.

In this article we present a study that seeks to explain the nature of, and the mortuary practices behind, the burials containing multiple individuals at the site of El Caño, Panama (part of the “Gran Coclé” archaeological tradition, ca. AD 700–1000). We set out to test our first impression of these burials as products of sumptuous funerals held upon the death of the rulers that included, among other practices, human sacrifice. With this in mind, our research aims to elucidate the status relationships between individuals, the circumstances of their deaths, and the religious and symbolic significance of their burials. The results reveal the presence of an individual of higher status within every tomb, the existence of a pattern with respect to the status of those who accompany that individual, the practice of mortuary treatments typical of sacrificial contexts, toxic substances, an iconography referring to human sacrifice, and the clear intention of using a burial as a representation of social order. Considering all this, we conclude that multiple burials at this site should be interpreted as high status. Our study highlights the practice of human sacrifice in funerary rituals linked to that status.

Archaeologists have used isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N) of the collagen of human bones, as well as knowledge of available nutrients, to infer that the diet of the ancient Maya was drawn from the resources of the Maya forest landscape. The interpretations have focused on plant carbohydrates from maize and protein dominated by white-tail deer. The δ15N values of bone collagen suggest that most of the protein requirements of the Maya could have been satisfied with a mixture of wild animal flesh and wild and cultivated plants including beans. Chaya, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, domesticated before the Spanish conquest, has a high-protein content and the potential to have been a significant contributor to the ancient Maya diet. Chaya is easily propagated, is grown in home gardens by the Maya today, and is a significant part of the local traditional diet. Chaya's stable isotopic composition of carbon (δ13C) resembles that of other terrestrial plants, but its values for nitrogen (δ15N) are significantly higher. Consumption of chaya would result in slightly higher δ15N values in humans than expected from the consumption of terrestrial animals. Thus, chaya is situated well as a component of the complex, diverse, and varied diets of ancient Mesoamericans.

En el apéndice de su articulo reciente, Bracco (2006:511-540) realiza una serie de comentarios e interpretaciones de la evidencia científica interdisciplinaria producida por nuestro equipo en el sitio de Los Ajos en el sureste de Uruguay. Entre otras cosas, Bracco nos imputa: (a) de haber retrocedido la problemática de investigación en el área veinte años atrás, (b) de desconocer los trabajos anteriores realizados en la región, (c) de forzar nuestros datos paleoambientales a la secuencia cultural, y (d) de alegar, sin evidencia, la naturaleza doméstica de los montículos durante el período Montículo Precerámico en Los Ajos. En este comentario, nosotros respondemos a las alegaciones de Bracco.

The cultural transformations associated with the Formative period are pivotal for understanding the prehistory of the Americas. Over the last five decades, investigations in southwestern Ecuador have provided an early and robust set of archaeological data relating to Archaic-to-Formative transformations as exemplified by the Las Vegas, Valdivia, Machalilla, and Chorrera archaeological traditions. However, recent archaeological research in adjacent zones of the equatorial Andes indicates that the transformations in southwestern Ecuador were paralleled by coeval but distinct developments. Recent (2006–2007) excavations in the Department of Tumbes, Peru, have documented previously unknown Formative transformations, including the development of substantial domestic architecture during the Archaic (ca. 4700–4330 B.C.E.) and early Formative (ca. 3500–3100 B.C.E.), the shift from elliptical pole-and-thatch dwellings to rectangular wattle-and-daub structures at ca. 900–500 B.C.E., and the construction of public architecture and the establishment of a two-tiered settlement system by ca. 1000–800 B.C.E. These recently discovered archaeological patterns from Tumbes and additional data from southern Ecuador provide the basis for revised comparative perspectives in which southwestern Ecuador is a significant—but no longer the only—vantage point for understanding the evolution of Formative societies in the equatorial Andes.

A remeasurement that corrects the previously reported orientation of Building J at Monte Albán, Mexico, suggests that the “pointer” angle did not point to any prominent star or group of stars. New data, however, do strongly relate this structure to both astronomy and the calendar. We propose that the principal function of the building was as a calendar temple.

An artificial structure was discovered under a natural skylight inside Grutas de Tzinacamóztoc, in the vicinity of the archaeological site of Cantona. The structure is made up of piled rocks, defining a pentagonal enclosure with a central mound. Detailed measurements and computer modeling allowed tracing of the sunbeam path projected on the structure and on the cave floor, particularly for dates of astronomical and/or Mesoamerican calendrical importance. This corroborates the possible prehispanic use of this site as a complex and sophisticated gnomon.

This article examines the urban layout and development of the ancient city of Angamuco (AD 250–1530)—a populated urban center located within the core area of the Purépecha Empire in Michoacán, Mexico—through the lens of its complex road network. Image and network analysis of lidar datasets revealed more than 3,000 roads distributed throughout the site, identified the main patterns of road arrangement, and documented variable accessibility within the city. After presenting a summary of these results, I propose that road networks are fundamental components of urban centers that can help reveal social configurations, local interactions, and models of governance. The study of the road network at the site of Angamuco suggests that this city developed organically without the strong influence of political hierarchy a few centuries prior to the formation of the Purépecha Empire. Angamuco inhabitants organized and negotiated space and settlement within their immediate community and had access to virtually all areas of the city.

Se presenta el primer análisis composicional, morfológico y contextual de objetos metálicos de la Puna Meridional argentina (1430-2070 aP) para contribuir al conocimiento de la metalurgia centro-surandina del cobre, desde un espacio marginal a los principales centros productivos relacionados con esta tecnología. Mediante microscopia electrónica de barrido y análisis de energía dispersiva de rayos X (MEB-EDS) se identifican cobres sin alear y aleaciones de cobre-arsénico y de plomo-arsénico, con una variedad de elementos minoritarios que corresponderían a distintas menas y, potencialmente, distintos lugares de producción en los Andes centro sur. El metal habría circulado a largas distancias en distintos trayectos en el marco de las redes sociales que vincularon ámbitos a diferentes alturas en ambas vertientes andinas. La Puna Meridional constituiría un nodo en esta circulación durante el período Medio. Allí el metal se integró a rituales domésticos del grupo corresidente de fundación, de clausura y referidos al ciclo anual agropastoril, mediante los cuales se propiciarían sus animales domésticos y se reclamaría el territorio.

In this paper we discuss the use of mineral pigments recovered in stratigraphic position from three excavated archaeological sites (Traful Lake area, Argentina) with the aim of providing information on selection and frequency of use of these raw materials. In this region, human occupation has been recorded since 4000 BP. In order to identify the chromophoric minerals, we applied wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques. Green, red, yellow ochre, and white pigments dated between 3490 and 590 BP were analyzed. The results show that different analytical techniques provide complementary information in order to identify the pigments. Green, red, and yellow samples are related to iron-based compounds. The green pigments can be associated with celadonite and the others with hematite. White samples revealed the presence of hydroxyapatite. Black dots, identified as carbon, were observed in several samples. Red pigments are always predominant, and their relative abundance increases in recent strata. Results are discussed in light of the context and previous reports of chroniclers.

Se presenta un modelo teórico para abordar el poblamiento humano del noroeste y centro-oeste de la Patagonia (incluyendo ambas vertientes cordilleranas, en Argentina y Chile), a partir del análisis del registro funerario y no funerario de poblaciones cazadoras-recolectoras cuyas cronologías se extienden desde los últimos 12.500 años aP hasta el presente. Para su elaboración se consideró el modelo de poblamiento de la Patagonia planteado por Luis Borrero y los desarrollados por John Walthall y Gustavo Barrientos para el tratamiento y disposición de los muertos, y se tuvo en cuenta la ubicación de los contextos arqueológicos en los tipos de ambientes presentes (bosque/ecotono y estepa). Se definieron variables para caracterizar el registro funerario y no funerario, a partir de las que se identificaron las etapas del poblamiento humano. Los resultados sugieren que hay sectores dentro del área de investigación que presentan continuidad de ocupaciones humanas durante todo el período considerado, mientras que otros son ocupados de manera discontinua. En concordancia con esto, se manifiestan las distintas etapas de poblamiento. Este trabajo propone, en definitiva, un abordaje novedoso para el registro funerario y no funerario del área de investigación y la inserta dentro de la discusión regional del poblamiento humano de la Patagonia.

Throughout its 200 years, the Museu Nacional (National Museum) in Rio de Janeiro has been the principal museum of natural history in Brazil. It certainly has been among the most important research institutions in the Americas. Many of the greatest national and international scholars worked in or visited its collections, exhibitions, and laboratories. Botanists, zoologists, ecologists, geologists, paleontologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and so many other scientists frequented the research facilities of the São Cristóvão Palace, its hallways, internal gardens, associated buildings, and park. They established friendships, scientific partnerships, and antagonisms, engaging in intense and productive exchanges that advanced science in each discipline yet with a multidisciplinary spirit. This thriving space, which we all always referred to as “our home,” was utterly destroyed by the tragedy of September 2018, when we watched in astonishment as the fire consumed our lives.

This article revises the spatial and temporal boundaries of the Casas Grandes tradition associated with northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, based on new data collected in neighboring northeastern Sonora. The Casas Grandes tradition attained its greatest extent during the Medio period (AD 1200–1450/1500) followed by a dramatic demographic and political collapse. Hunter-gatherer groups subsequently occupied most of northwest Chihuahua. Data from the Fronteras Valley, Sonora, presents an alternative scenario, with a clear pattern of cultural continuity from the eleventh century to the colonial period in which sedentary farmers occupied the same landscapes and occasionally the same villages. These observations contribute to our understanding of the spread and subsequent demise of the Casas Grandes tradition in hinterland regions. For the Fronteras Valley, we infer that immigrant groups originally introduced Casas Grandes traditions and that uneven participation in a suite of shared religious beliefs and practices was common to all the hinterlands.