Haciendo eco de las crónicas coloniales sobre el sistema vial imperial andino, la mayoría de las investigaciones sobre caminos incaicos se han centrado en su planificación y tecnología monumental como las principales características de esta infraestructura prehispánica tardía. Mediante un estudio regional en los valles de Arica (18° S), abordamos, en este trabajo, una investigación del Qhapaq Ñan (sistema vial incaico) desde una perspectiva de redes. Analizamos un palimpsesto de 13.000 km de vías, producido por la acumulación de sistemas viales de distintos períodos cronológicos. Este es relacionado con el patrón de asentamiento prehispánico tardío para modelizar los flujos de movimiento durante los siglos quince y dieciséis: mediante análisis espaciales, delineamos las estructuras más probables de las redes viales local e imperial. Finalmente, consideramos medidas de centralidades y acumulación de flujo para discutir la hipótesis del control del movimiento como estrategia imperial. Los resultados muestran que la hegemonía incaica se pudo relacionar con el control espacial de los flujos de las interacciones, y también que el enfoque de red aplicado a los palimpsestos viales reviste gran potencial para la arqueología del movimiento en regiones desérticas y montañosas.

Andean prehispanic textiles are renown for being complex masterpieces made with labor-intensive techniques and high-quality raw materials. Nevertheless, the vast majority of textiles, those used by the population at large, were plain, simple, and without any decoration. We study a sample composed of the most common textiles used by people living at Cerro de Oro in the Cañete Valley, Peru. Our analysis focuses on fiber selection, yarn thickness, and the presence of errors throughout the process of weaving. We discuss relevant aspects of the social process of textile production, such as the role played by plain-weave textiles in different contexts, their use in different types of garments, and the varied ways community members, with particular skill levels, participated in clothing the living and the dead at Cerro de Oro.

The exceptional preservation of perishable artifacts on the arid west coast of the Andes has led to an abundance of knowledge on prehispanic textile production. Yet comparatively little of this knowledge is based on highland examples due to their poor preservation in the moist environment of the Andean sierra. Systematic excavations in 2011–2012 at the archaeological complex of Hualcayán in highland Ancash, Peru, revealed surprisingly well-preserved textiles and cordage from four partially looted machay-style tombs. In this article we provide an overview of textile forms, production techniques, and iconography from a sample of 292 textile and cordage fragments, equaling 20% of Hualcayán's assemblage. This work contributes to a better understanding of ancient Andean weaving in general and interregional interaction during the Early Intermediate period and Middle Horizon (ca. AD 1–1000) in particular. Significantly, we document variability in cotton yarn and a general uniformity in camelid yarn and weaving techniques in the overall sample. These findings, in combination with similarities in weaving techniques and style between coastal examples and Hualcayán's fabrics, suggest a coastal–highland relationship.

De las dos pinturas de un felino que adornan la entrada del edificio interior de Cerro Sechin, un sitio del período Inicial en la costa norte del Peru, la del lado oriental es auténtica, mientras que la del lado occidental se cree es una falsificación. Aunque un recien artículo y fotografía sugieren que el felino occidental fue repintado en 1971-1972 para mejorar la vista para el público, un estudio cuidadoso de la fotografía apoya la posición que el felino occidental es una obra moderna.

The Puuc region of northern Yucatan was one of the most important areas of Maya civilization during the Terminal Classic florescent period. Despite its importance to Maya prehistory, there is little understanding of the times prior to the great cultural florescence. Eight seasons of research at Chac II provide new information regarding an important Maya center between the Classic and Terminal Classic periods (A.D. 300–800), including the changing nature of influence and contacts with foreign groups reaching central Mexico. The great antiquity of Chac, the presence of numerous substructures, and the variety of architectural styles in the Great Pyramid Plaza suggest that the site was an originator of the Early Puuc architectural style. It is argued that the major ritual offering below the central monument at the Gran Plaza re-creates the “turquoise” hearth reenacting the birth of the Fifth Sun at Teotihuacan. These new data are transforming understanding of the Puuc Maya and their relations with greater Mesoamerica.

Although the ceremonial center of Vilcanota was called the third most important temple in the Inka empire in the sixteenth century, its exact location and meaning have remained matters of conjecture. In this article I examine historical and archaeological information which demonstrates that the temple was located at the pass of La Raya. Ecological and ethnographic data from the region support the conclusion that the temple was built at La Raya because of the area's association with sacred rivers and mountains which were in turn linked with fertility concepts, the birth of the sun, and an ecological/political boundary. Together these factors made the place of special significance in Inka religion.

Este artigo faz uma análise das práticas portuárias empregadas no comércio de africanos na cidade do Rio de Janeiro durante as duas primeiras décadas do século dezenove. A partir da diferenciação conceitual entre desembarque e descarga final das arqueações de cativos, novos dados obtidos em fontes primárias inéditas foram confrontados com relatos de cronistas e com fontes documentais tradicionalmente conhecidas. Sob essa perspectiva, o texto apresenta um panorama sólido e plausível sobre o processo de importação de escravizados, resgatando a importância do papel da alfândega do Rio de Janeiro como primeiro local de desembarque, e deslocando para o litoral da Saúde, no antigo bairro do Valongo, o local de descarga final das arqueações de africanos. Trata-se, portanto, de um cenário divergente da teoria corrente, segundo a qual o Cais do Valongo, localizado na enseada do Valonguinho, teria sido a porta de entrada dos milhares de cativos africanos que chegaram ao Rio de Janeiro.

During the expansion of Tawantinsuyo, the Inca Empire sustained its hegemony by using multiple strategies, including moving specialized groups called mitimaes to their conquered territories. This study examines bioarchaeological evidence from the Camarones 9 (CAM-9) Inca period cemetery at the mouth of the Camarones Valley in northern Chile. The waters in this valley contain concentrations of arsenic that are 100 times above the norm (10 μg/L) for human ingestion, causing serious health consequences. We study the environmental health effects on this population, using atomic absorption spectrometry and hydride generation to investigate arsenic concentration in the bone tissues of 16 individuals sampled from this burial site. Three of four individuals presented arsenic levels in their bones that were beyond the standard 1 μg/g, with a median of 3.6 μg/g; in some, the levels were nine times higher than those currently recommended by the World Health Organization. Considering previous and current bioarchaeological evidence, especially the high arsenic levels found in these individuals, we postulate that the CAM-9 site population corresponds to mitimaes who settled on the Camarones coast. This study is relevant to all regions of the world that present ecotoxic loads.

A partir del análisis de la configuración de los paisajes arqueológicos en el bosque montano de las yungas tucumanas, entre 400 aC y 1500 dC, se discuten los cambios y continuidades en la práctica y las condiciones en las cuales estos se reprodujeron. Como resultado de las investigaciones arqueológicas llevadas a cabo en Anfama desde el año 2014, se identificaron 14 asentamientos residenciales de distinta escala, los cuales fueron mapeados, sondeados, fechados y, algunos de ellos, excavados. El análisis cronológico, realizado en base a contextos materiales y a 15 dataciones radiocarbónicas, permite proponer cuatro bloques temporales que se diferencian en las modalidades de construir y habitar los espacios domésticos y en la utilización de materias primas a través de determinadas tecnologías. Se discute cómo las trazas materiales de la práctica social traslapan a dicha segmentación cronométrica, de la misma manera en que eventos constructivos, habitacionales y depositacionales se superponen en determinados lugares. Finalmente, se reconocen tendencias de larga duración que giran en torno a la dispersión poblacional como atributo que define a los paisajes y a las lógicas sociales que se sostuvieron en el área de estudio por casi dos milenios.

Los naufragios y parte desu carga continiian siendo objeto de actividades de salvamento y comercializaciόn, que traicionan los principios éticos de la conservatiόn e investigation del patrimonio cultural. Detrás del cumplimiento de ciertos estándares metodolόgicos, la participation de profesionales, el aval de algunos gobiernos y el aplauso del público, la principal motivatiόn de dichas actividades yace en la obtenciόn de un rádito econόmico, mediante la subasta de un acervo patrimonial no renovable. En este trabajo se expone una critica a los principios que rigen estas actividades, con especial atenciόn en los naufragios y las colecciones de monedas. Sobre la base de cuestiones eticas, epistemologicas y técnicas, se presentan los lineamientos fundamentales de un modelo centrado en la investigation, puesta en valor y preservatiόn a largo plazo de los artefactos.

In “How Can Spin, Ply, and Knot Direction Contribute to Understanding the Quipu Code?” (2005), mathematician Marcia Ascher referenced new data on 59 Andean khipus to assess the significance of their variable twists and knots. However, this aggregative, comparative impulse arose late in Ascher's khipu research; the mathematical relations she had identified among 200+ previously cataloged khipus were specified only at the level of individual specimens. This article pursues a new scale of analysis, generalizing the “Ascher relations” to recognize meaningful patterns in a 650-khipu corpus, the largest yet subjected to computational study. We find that Ascher formulae characterize at least 74% of khipus, which exhibit meaningful arrangements of internal sums. Top cords are shown to register a minority of sum relationships and are newly identified as markers of low-level, “working” khipus. We reunite two fragments of a broken khipu using arithmetic properties discovered between the strings. Finally, this analysis suggests a new khipu convention—the use of white pendant cords as boundary markers for clusters of sum cords. In their synthesis, exhaustive search, confirmatory study, mathematical rejoining, and hypothesis generation emerge as distinct contributions to khipu description, typology, and decipherment.