The Late Preclassic to Classic period (400 B. C.-A. D. 900) Maya community of La Milpa, Belize, has recently revealed an ancient water and land-use system. As demonstrated at other southern Maya Lowland sites, the Maya created a microwatershed to store and convey water during the four months of seasonal drought. In addition to water conservation measures associated with reservoirs, deliberate channelization, diversion weirs, and postulated fields, the importance of rainy-season erosion control is indicated. Given the ancient population densities identified in the Maya area, coupled with the seasonal scarcity of water, we posit a “skill-oriented” economy.

This article considers the results of instrumental neutron-activation analyses of 61 obsidian artifacts recovered from excavations at four archaeological sites in the lower Río Verde valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Determinations of source locations of these artifacts permit the examination of changes in obsidian exchange patterns spanning the late Middle Formative to the Classic period. The results show that through most of this period the importation of obsidian into the lower Verde region was dominated by sources in the Basin of Mexico and Michoacan. The data allow us to evaluate previous models of interregional relations during the Formative and Classic periods, including interaction with the highland centers of Monte Albán and Teotihuacán.

In this study I examine local-scale associations between land resources and the density distribution of Maya residential sites for the prehistoric population maxima of the Late Classic period (ca. A. D. 600-900). Methods involve agricultural land evaluation following USDA guidelines, under assumptions of hand-cultivation technology. I give specific attention to the issue of concordance between the geographic scale of household agricultural production and the scale at which agricultural land evaluation is conducted. The focus is the upper Belize River area of Belize, Central America, where intensive archaeological survey and local-scale land-resource mapping provide the data necessary for a detailed analysis of ancient land-use patterns. The analysis reveals a strong and consistent relationship between prehistoric Maya settlement density and the agricultural productive capability of local soil types. For each land type, I discuss the amount of land available for each residential locus and probable cultivation methods used. I argue that the ability to identify clearly and quantitatively the association (or lack of association) between household settlement pattern and agricultural land capability is a necessary component of regional studies that seek to test models of Maya political economy and social change.

Application of a neuropsychological model, developed in the laboratory, to the graffiti of Tikal reveals that the great majority of the latter are products of altered states of consciousness, depictions of visions seen by people in states of trance in relatively private settings. Beneath this art's apparent surface disorder and haphazard arrangement lies a definite neuropsychological order. Consideration of the provenances of graffiti suggests that the practice of trancing was widespread in Classic times, at least among the elite class and upper stratum of commoners.

Completed excavations at this important Preclassic Maya site have produced 350 m2 of Middle Preclassic (1200-400 B. C.) deposits dug to bedrock; a continuous section 47 m long through the Preclassic deposits documents the architectural history of the site. Nine more Middle Preclassic burials, the remains of earth- and plaster-floored houses with associated yard surfaces, and a chultun chamber containing well-preserved plant remains document economic and ritual behavior in the Swasey and Bladen phases (1200-650 B. C.).

Assessment of the nature of intrasocietal relationships in the context of the origin of state-level power is a critical area of study within anthropological archaeology. A well-established model of such emergent political relations (Wittfogel 1957) posits that differential access to land, coupled with intensification of agriculture, places common farmers in a position of inferiority, and thus subjects them to exploitation by the elite controllers of intensive agriculture. The central thesis of this article is that the initial relationship between the elite controllers and the common laborers in an intensive agricultural system was mutually beneficial, with the state only capable of exercising more exploitative power some generations after the establishment of intensive agriculture. I argue that the economic measure of marginal productivity may best reflect each farmer’s personal contribution to agriculture, and that, in a largely kin-based system, it is difficult for the emergent elite to exercise exploitative power when the marginal productivity of labor is high. I support the thesis on the basis of the simulated trajectory of marginal productivity, which indicates that marginal product increases with intensification. I explore the model further in a consideration of the rise of the Classic Maya kingdom of Copán, Honduras.

Based on the results of 267 replication experiments with obsidian, chalcedony, and agate tools conducted with a range of working materials, I have classified use-wear patterns using Keeley's high-resolution approach to establish a framework for interpretation of stone-tool use. This paper describes the results of microwear analysis of two assemblages of lithic artifacts from the late Late Classic period (A. D. 763-850) at Copán, western Honduras, and shows how the use-wear data can be interpreted within the archaeological contexts and help to investigate how ancient complex societies functioned as well as how and why they changed. Microwear analysis of chipped-stone artifacts collected in front of Structure 10L-16 and artifacts from Structure 10L-22A show clear differences between the two assemblages. In accordance with the archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence, the low use-intensity of chipped stone from the first structure could have originated from special use such as ritual, production of marine shell ornaments, etc., during the reign of Yax Pac. Marine shell craft production may have been carried out by members of the royal family or attached specialists serving the ruler. The relatively high use-intensity observable in the second assemblage may reinforce the hypothesis that the building was a Classic Maya popol na (council house) in which feasts or banquets were prepared. If this was the case, use-wear data might support epigraphic and iconographic evidence that suggests the weakening and eventual demise of centralized political authority at Copán in the ninth century.

In this paper we summarize more than a decade of interdisciplinary work at Calakmul, including (1) the mapping project, which has covered more than 30 km2; (2) the excavation project, which has uncovered major structures and tombs in the center of the city; (3) the epigraphic project, whose goal is to study the hieroglyphic texts and relate them to the archaeological evidence; (4) the analysis of the architecture, ceramics, and chipped stone to define sacred and secular activity areas and chronological stages; and (5) a focus on the ecology, hydrology, and paleoclimatology of Calakmul and its environs with the aim of understanding more fully its periods of development and decline.

The Chinchorros were a preceramic fishing society that inhabited the Atacama coast of southern Peru and northern Chile from about 7020 to 1110 B. C., and their antiquity is much greater than originally thought. Previous Chinchorro chronologies have focused on seriation of fishing implements; this paper suggests analysis of mummies as another useful chronological tool. The Chinchorro system of artificial mummification, the oldest in the world, began about 5050 B. C, and was abandoned about 1720 B. C. Black, Red, Bandage, Mud-Coated, and Natural mummification styles represent diachronic cultural changes. In contrast to previous views, I argue here that the sophisticated Chinchorro mortuary practices originated locally, near Arica, specifically in the Camarones Gorge. The high concentration of cemeteries, high mortuary energy expenditure, presence of villages, and heavy reliance on maritime subsistence, as inferred from mummies, artifacts and human bone analyses, are all indicators that the Chinchorros were an early sedentary maritime society. The ideological complexity and antiquity of settlement of the Andean coast therefore need reappraisal.

Ancient sources of salt have been revealed by underwater archaeology along the south coast of Belize. A relative rise in sea level of about 1 m at the end of the Classic period (ca. A. D. 900) submerged ancient Maya settlements and transformed the modern landscape by reducing the amount of available land and by changing the vegetation. The discovery of submerged archaeological sites and their dating by associated ceramics and radiocarbon date determination documents the sea level rise. Salt production by the sal cocida or boiling method at the underwater site of Stingray Lagoon and at other specialized salt production sites provided salt for coastal use and inland transport and diminished the need for long-distance import of this basic human requirement. This paper describes salt-making artifacts as well as salt production. The lack of animal bones at the Stingray Lagoon site where other organic material was preserved indicates that salt was not produced for salt-drying fish. Evidence that salt was obtained from the Belizean coast instead of from the northern Yucatán coast is in line with the view of ancient Maya economy in which basic subsistence resources were produced locally whereas long-distance trade was concentrated on elite or ceremonial resources and goods.

Numeric age assessments of organic material encapsulated by rock varnish present on stone lintels of two “puquios” in the Nasca region of the south coast of Peru indicate a Precolumbian age. Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon analyses at the Isotrace Laboratory revealed ages of cal A. D. 560(620)650 and cal A. D. 600(640)660 (1 sigma). These calibrated measurements are considered to be appropriate in the context of the archaeological settlement pattern data for the region. As well, the written documents of the colonial period neither confirm nor deny the presence of the puquios. Three assumptions are inherent in the acceptance of these dates: (1) AMS 14C dating and its application to rock varnish yield reliable results, (2) sample contamination can be recognized, and (3) determination of the age of the puquios rests upon testable available information; ex silentio arguments about the presence or absence of the puquios in the Nasca region before the Spanish conquest are inadequate for the resolution of the question.

Recent publications have seriously misrepresented architectural and archaeological information concerning the important Initial Period (1800-900 B. C.) site of Huaca de los Reyes in the Moche Valley, Peru. Excavation evidence available since the mid-1970s clearly shows that most of the surface architecture at the site belongs to a single, integrated construction phase and is not the cumulative result of eight construction phases as proposed by Conklin (1985). This chronological clarification is especially significant because some Initial Period coastal mound sites are the result of only one or two large construction phases (Pozorski and Pozorski 1986), whereas others apparently contain multiple small construction phases (Burger 1992). Large-scale planning and construction imply more sophisticated levels of sociopolitical organization.

Artificial cranial deformation is a recognized attribute of many archaeologically recovered Andean skeletal collections. Ethnohistoric sources document the diversity of forms used to mark both vertical and horizontal status distinctions among Late Horizon peoples. Region-specific social groups were characterized by distinctive deformation styles, as were individuals of Inka heritage. Review of early Spanish accounts and consideration of various strategies commonly used in analyzing deformation forms suggest that investigators be sensitive to both final skull shape and the nature of deforming devices. This case study maintains that detailed descriptions of skull form will permit interpretations of technique and apparatus used, without the actual deforming artifacts. We examined archaeologically recovered skeletal remains from Huaracane-phase, Tiwanaku-related Chen Chen-phase (Tiwanaku V), and Tumilaca-phase cemetery components of the Omo site group, located near the present-day town of Moquegua in southern Peru. Our analysis demonstrates that the pattern of cranial deformation within the Omo M10 cemetery complex clearly emphasizes homogeneity within individual cemeteries and heterogeneity across cemeteries. We enlist current competing models for Tiwanaku hegemony to interpret this pattern.

The puquios of Nasca are a system of subterranean filtration galleries that provide water for irrigation and domestic uses in the middle portions of the Nasca, Taruga, and Las Trancas valleys of the Río Grande de Nasca drainage of the south coast of Peru. At present 36 puquios function in these three valleys; in the past their number may have exceeded 50. We discuss the formal characteristics and the construction of the puquios, and describe each of the extant puquios. The results of archaeological settlement surveys conducted in the three valleys indicate that the puquios did not yet exist in Early Nasca (Early Intermediate Period 2-4) times, but were almost certainly in use by the time of the Inka conquest of the region in the late fifteenth century. We suggest that the initial construction and use of the puquios may have occurred as early as Nasca 5 times, and probably not later than Late Nasca (Early Intermediate Period 6-7) times.

The concept of dualism has become a major theme in archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic studies of native South American societies. This article reviews use of the concept by archaeologists and ethnohistorians in the Andes, and considers an ethnohistoric and archaeological case from the Nepeña Valley of the Peruvian North Coast. The review shows that various ideas have been described by the terms “dualism” or “dual organization,” and that archaeologists have interpreted paired sets of remains as the material expressions of dualism. The Nepeña Valley data document a paradoxical case in which the power of local lords, who shared rule, was based on dual organizations, and yet the settlement pattern is clearly hierarchical. This suggests that although dual principles may have formed the social syntax of authority, political power—particularly access to labor—was asymmetric, suggesting, in turn, the need to reconsider the relationship between material remains and complex social principles such as dualism in archaeological approaches to prehistoric social and political organizations.

Spondylus and Strombus shells are believed to have been sacred items in Latin American societies, often traded over long distances. Studies of the manufacturing sites of these and other prized marine shells have been mainly undertaken to investigate the long distance trade networks and symbol systems of the ancient societies. In contrast, this report examines evidence from small, inland sites of the Regional Developmental Period-Guangala Phase in southwest Ecuador to understand the role of shell working as a craft activity within the local socioeconomic system. It is shown that this activity, which involves interaction between littoral and inland dwellers, played an important role in subsistence adaptations to the semi-arid southwest coast of Ecuador. These findings will also be of interest to scholars of the subsequent period seeking to understand the organization of the late prehistoric Ecuadorian trading chiefdoms.

In this article I demonstrate the utility of an historical study of social change by examining the development of political authority on the Peruvian north coast during the Moche period through its symbols of power. We too often equate the material record with “archaeological culture,” assume that it reflects broad cultural reality, and interpret it by reference to general evolutionary models. Here I reassess Moche society within its historic context by examining the relationship between underlying social structure and short-term processes that shaped Moche political formation, and reach very different conclusions. I see the “diagnostic” Moche material record primarily as the symbolic manifestation of a distinctive political ideology whose character was historically constituted in an ongoing cultural tradition. Aspiring rulers used ideology to manipulate cultural principles in their interests and thus mediate the paradox between exclusive power and holistic Andean social structure which created the dynamic for change. A historic study allows us to identify the symbolic and ritual mechanisms that socially constituted Moche ideology, and reveals a pattern of diversity in time and space that was the product of differential choice by local rulers, a pattern that cannot be seen within a theoretical approach that emphasizes general evolutionary or materialist factors.

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.