Sealings recovered from the Omo M10 temple, a provincial center of the Andean Tiwanaku state (AD 500–1100), and from the Muru Ut Pata neighborhood of the Tiwanaku capital, as well as a signet ring from the Akapana East complex of Tiwanaku's highland capital, shed light on the hitherto undocumented use of seals and sealings in Central Andean complex society. The identification of Tiwanaku sealings related to the signet ring seal has implications for understanding the transmission of identity, authority, and authenticity over time and distance in early Andean states.

Este estudio contribuye al entendimiento de la interrelación entre cambio ambiental, modificaciones en las estrategias de subsistencia y movilidad de grupos cazadores-recolectores, y la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías de captura y procesamiento de recursos durante el Holoceno tardío en el centro-oeste de Santa Cruz, Patagonia meridional, Argentina. Se presentan valores inéditos de δ13C sobre apatita y valores de δ15N y δ13C sobre colágeno de 42 individuos recuperados en estructuras de entierros con diferentes cronologías. Se utilizó el concepto de nicho isotópico para entender las continuidades y/o cambios de la dieta cazadora-recolectora. Se evaluó si hubo variaciones temporales y sexuales entre los nichos isotópicos de los individuos con patrones diferentes de organización social y económica en momentos previos y posteriores a los 900 años aP. Los resultados indican cambios en la dieta en los últimos 1.000 años, lo que se plasmó en valores más bajos en δ13Capa de los individuos enterrados en los chenques tardíos y, en particular, en las mujeres. De esta manera, la información paleodietaria apoya la hipótesis de modificaciones en el nicho isotópico a través del tiempo.

Archaeology is increasingly employing remote sensing techniques such as airborne lidar (light detection and ranging), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and photogrammetry in tropical environments where dense vegetation hinders to a great extent the ability to understand the scope of ancient landscape modification. These technologies have enabled archaeologists to develop sophisticated analyses that overturn traditional misconceptions of tropical ecologies and the human groups that have inhabited them in the long term. This article presents new data on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia that reveals the extent to which its ancient societies transformed this landscape, which is frequently thought of as pristine. By recursively integrating remote sensing and archaeology, this study contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship examining ancient land use and occupation in densely forested contexts.

The attribution of osteological remains of a bird discovered in Preceramic deposits at Nemocón IV rockshelter (Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia) to Ara sp. (macaws) is confirmed through osteological and morphometrical analyses. Thirteen bones were recovered from two adjacent, arbitrary excavation levels; and are considered the remains of a single individual because of the rarity of the taxon, their similar size and taphonomic alteration, and the presence of paired elements. Radiocarbon dating of the macaw reveals it comes from the ninth millennium cal BP, the oldest date recorded from Nemocón IV. Paleoenvironmental data suggest that, during the deposition of the Preceramic levels at Nemocón IV, climatic conditions were close to those of today. The modern range of the macaws is outside these climatic parameters, and all modern Ara species are allochthonous to the Sabana de Bogotá, indicating the archaeological macaw was also allochthonous in Preceramic times. Analysis of the remains shows the macaw was not dismembered, so it is unlikely that it was used as food. Early conquest records indicate macaws were traded and maintained outside their natural ranges as pets, as a source of feathers, for use in rituals, or for a combination of uses.

In embedded economies where multiple modes of production and exchange exist, artifact distributions in households alone do not reflect the strength of specific modes. We use a diachronic perspective tied to changes in political economies and artifact class densities standardized by excavation volume at the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, to elucidate changes in the strength of individual production and exchange modes in the Preclassic and Classic periods. We focus on ground stone densities as a measure of grinding intensity across elite and common households. Data indicate that common households always ground more maize than elites, but intensity peaked in the Late Classic when tax and tribute demands and market exchanges were greatest. In the Terminal Classic, common household grinding intensity decreased by half as tribute burdens diminished, illustrating the impact of political hierarchies on household economies.

This article investigates the utility of a chaîne opératoire approach centered on technologies of ceramic production for identifying Inca mitmaqkuna archaeologically. Although early documents suggest that the Inca program of resettlement (mitmaq) was massive in scale, archaeologists have had minimal success in identifying such relocated populations. Here we test a novel approach that focuses on technologies of production and associated tool assemblages used within different communities of practice. Previous studies indicate that the ethnic Cañari of southern Ecuador used a distinctive method of pottery manufacture involving a specific chaîne opératoire and a unique set of production-related tools. According to early sources, the Inca deported Cañari peoples to various sectors of Tawantinsuyu. In this article, we investigate the contemporary manufacturing style of ceramics from the Ancash region of north-central Peru—an area where Cañari mitmaqkuna were purportedly resettled—to determine whether distinctive communities of practice potentially representing relocated communities might be visible. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to identify connections among distant communities of practice via a focus on craft production technologies that, in certain historical contexts, may be construed as evidence for the presence of resettled populations.

Este trabajo está centrado en el estudio de una de las primeras formas de manejo ganadero de la época colonial en la Banda Oriental. Aborda específicamente el análisis de un conjunto de corrales de palmas ubicados en el sureste del Uruguay, en la frontera con Brasil. Está basado en un enfoque interdisciplinar en el que se combinó el trabajo con la población local, el análisis historiográfico, la prospección remota y sobre el terreno, el análisis morfométrico de la totalidad de los corrales y las palmas que los componen, y el análisis fisicoquímico del sedimento (análisis de fosfatos y partículas biosilíceas). El artículo propone que estas estructuras son uno de los cerramientos ganaderos más antiguos (siglos diecisiete y dieciocho) de la Banda Oriental, vinculados a formas indígenas de manejo vegetal y animal que se fueron reajustando durante la colonización europea de este sector fronterizo del Cono Sur de América.

Archaeologists working in the Late Formative Lake Titicaca Basin have identified several “transit communities”—villages that benefited from long-distance exchange. Some scholars suggest that such places played a key role in the development of the Middle Horizon city of Tiwanaku. In this article, we explore the movement of plant goods into transit communities during both the Late Formative (300 BC–AD 500) and Middle Horizon (AD 600–1100) periods. After presenting the current understanding of transit communities, we summarize previous work on both local plants, including tubers and quinoa, and the presence of maize. We then report on a recent microbotanical study of ceramics recovered from excavations at Late Formative Challapata (in the eastern basin) and a burial from the Middle Horizon occupation at Chiripa (in the southern basin). For the first time we identify lowland tubers in the Lake Titicaca Basin, including yuca, sweet potato, and arrowroot. These findings reveal the critical importance of microbotanical analyses for tracing regional connections and foodways in emergent Middle Horizon worlds, as well as the need for more complex interpretive models for things/plants-in-motion.

Este trabajo busca discutir los alcances y limitaciones de la aplicación del concepto de comunicación visual en el arte rupestre. Con este objetivo, se evalúa la presencia/ausencia de reglas de composición en el arte de Viuda Quenzana (Patagonia centro-meridional, Argentina), y se discuten sus variaciones a través del tiempo. Para tal fin, se analizan las características estructurales de las reglas composicionales actuantes sobre la producción de 367 motivos, distribuidos en 39 paneles correspondientes a 11 sitios, y sus cambios y/o continuidades a partir de la evaluación de cinco estratos de color. Los resultados muestran que las reglas vinculadas con las características visuales de las imágenes (forma y técnica), tienen mayor peso en la potencial codificación y decodificación de información visual, que las reglas vinculadas con el emplazamiento de las imágenes en los soportes y sus relaciones con otras imágenes.

Los índices de utilidad económica son aplicados en análisis zooarqueológicos desde hace más de cuatro décadas, lo que llevó al desarrollo de indicadores exclusivos para especies de mamíferos marinos. En Sudamérica se explotaron dos tipos de pinnípedos: Otaria flavescens y Arctocephalus australis; sin embargo, sólo para el primero fue derivado dicho índice. A partir de un individuo recolectado en el canal Beagle (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) se presenta un índice de utilidad económica para A. australis basado en la medición de peso de carne para cada elemento o porción del esqueleto. Los resultados generales indican que O. flavescens presenta mayor desarrollo muscular en el sector de las costillas, mientras que los A. australis lo presentan en las vértebras cervicales. La aplicación del índice en conjuntos zooarqueológicos del canal Beagle con predominio de especímenes de A. australis ha mostrado un ajuste mejor respecto de las tendencias observadas previamente utilizando los valores generados para O. flavescens: (1) en el Segundo Componente de Imiwaia I (Holoceno medio) fue posible reconocer un perfil anatómico compatible con la selección de porciones de bajo valor económico; y (2) en Ajej I (Holoceno tardío) se identificó una tendencia similar, no identificada anteriormente.

En este estudio paleodemográfico contribuimos a la discusión sobre el impacto de la incorporación de recursos vegetales domesticados en poblaciones del sitio Jaime Prats-1, el área de entierros humanos con mayor número de individuos del centro occidente argentino. La ubicación espacial y temporal del sitio arqueológico se corresponde con el registro de cultígenos prehispánicos en la región, por lo que resulta relevante para entender la dinámica poblacional en un área de interacción entre grupos cazadores-recolectores y sociedades agricultoras. Los resultados del análisis de los perfiles de edades de muerte, el Índice de Juventud y la suma de probabilidades de los fechados radiocarbónicos disponibles, indican un pulso de crecimiento demográfico entre los 2000 y los 1500 años aP, correspondiente al período de uso del sitio. Tomando como referencia un conjunto de cazadores-recolectores contemporáneos y otro de agricultores tardíos, ambos procedentes de la región, Jaime Prats-1 ocupa una posición intermedia, de confluencia entre ambos sistemas de subsistencia.

We thank our colleague for his comment, address concerns raised, and encourage future collaborative research to answer important questions about the Middle Preclassic at Cahal Pech.

The contents, context, and date of Problematical Deposit 50 bear on the origin, function, and meaning of Teotihuacan stylistic traits in the Southern Maya Lowlands. Archaeological data and material culture research appear to support emulation and adaptation by local rulers and elites, while an actual presence of Teotihuacanos is asserted by epigraphy and iconography. PD 50, the partial contents of a probable Early Classic chamber burial, appears to support local emulation, but an extraordinary pottery vessel, nicknamed here the “Arrival Bowl,” implies direct contact. The chronology and archaeological context demonstrate that the appearance of Teotihuacan stylistic traits at Tikal during the later Early Classic period is functionally distinct from the goods distributed over an interregional interaction sphere of much longer duration in which both Central Mexico and the Maya area participated. Furthermore, together with other features at Tikal, PD 50 suggests that adoption of Teotihuacan ideology by Tikal's elite was eventually met with resistance that contributed to the violence at the end of the Early Classic period that is manifested in the archaeological record.

Patolli petroglyphs were recently identified at two archaeological sites in northeast Honduras. Patolli is a Mesoamerican game of chance described in ethnohistoric sources and documented in archaeological contexts in many parts of Mesoamerica. Thus, it has been characterized as an important element of Mesoamerican culture. The existence of patolli boards at Plan Grande, on the island of Guanaja, and at Sawacito in northeast Honduras shows that the practice of the game extended farther to the east than earlier presumed and indicates long-distance interaction. Given the considerable number of five patolli petroglyphs at Plan Grande, I characterize the site as an important center.

Use of Patagonia's forests by hunter-gatherers remains relatively poorly understood. Regional archaeological records indicate initial forest colonization during the middle Holocene, infrequent use until late prehistory, and, even then, fairly sparse occupation, likely in conjunction with use of the adjacent steppe. Recent excavations at Río Ibáñez-6 West in Aysén, Chile, provide a new perspective for understanding the prehistoric use of Patagonian forests, particularly regarding timing of the initial occupation and the potential for development of a forest-specific adaptation. We provide chronological, lithic, archaeofaunal, and macrobotanical data that show use of the Ibáñez River valley at least a millennium earlier than previously documented. These data indicate increased dietary breadth in late prehistory, supporting the established hypothesis that the valley became a closed system at that time. From our data we develop hypotheses regarding prehistoric forest use in Aysén that have implications for the broader understanding of the suitability of the forest for prehistoric human foragers.