In 2019, while conducting a survey of the Carabamba River valley (ca. 150–3,325 m asl) in northern Peru, we identified and surveyed a group of five unreported geoglyphs. Their location and iconography suggest that they date from the Formative period (1800–200 BC) and that they were possibly associated with a form of fertility ritual.

In this report, we present a new 14C of 9627–9490 cal BC (8640 ± 30 BP) obtained at the Intihuasi Cave, San Luis, Argentina. The sample was obtained during fieldwork conducted as part of a new management plan for tourist use of the site. Intihuasi has played a central role in the history of archaeological investigations in South America. There, in 1951 González applied for the first time a systematic methodology for archaeological excavations in Argentina. Moreover, he complemented his field results with the obtainment of the first radiocarbon dates for the Southern Cone of South America. These achievements allowed him to build the first macroregional chronological sequence, which is still partially used. The new radiocarbon date presented in this article aims to reconsider the importance of the Intihuasi Cave for the discussion of the macroregional peopling of the Southern Cone of South America. We believe that the site ratifies the occurrence of an Andean population vector in the region.

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

El presente trabajo tiene como finalidad caracterizar al tipo cerámico Thin Plain con base en materiales cerámicos obtenidos recientemente en el sitio arqueológico Chak Pet de Altamira, Tamaulipas. Esta cerámica, reportada por autores clásicos de la Huaxteca, se caracteriza por una mayor resistencia a la fractura y antiplásticos consistentes en fragmentos de cerámica molida de los tipos Prisco Negro y Pánuco Gris. Los resultados han permitido, a su vez, proponer una cronología específica para este tipo cerámico, el cual, cabe decir, guarda estrecha relación con la cerámica Heavy Plain; esto con base en una innovación tecnológica y no únicamente por la inserción de técnicas decorativas, como tradicionalmente se hace. De la misma manera, se ha podido precisar la cronología de este tipo cerámico para finales de la fase Tantuán III (100 aC-200 dC) y principios de la fase Coy (200-650 dC), es decir, para algún momento entre el 150 y el 250 dC. Los resultados, a su vez, se han correlacionado con el hallazgo de otros materiales cerámicos que también son marcadores de la fase Coy, entre los cuales destacan materiales del Complejo Tancol, directamente asociados con las muestras presentadas en este estudio.

The virtual removal of forest canopies through light detection and ranging (lidar) has enhanced archaeological interpretations of settlement patterns in tropical zones. Although lidar collections of Indigenous landscapes in the Caribbean Archipelago are limited, resolutions from open-access lidar datasets reveal coarse regional settlement patterns and large-scale architecture planning. In this article we inspect the Caguana Ceremonial complex in Utuado, Borikén (Puerto Rico), using a 2016 lidar dataset available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration portal. Visual comparisons between known Indigenous sites, surface anomalies, and site inspections in the three sectors under study identified plazas, possible ancient paths into the Caguana complex, a possible agricultural area west of the site, and the ANG-4 site. This study, the first application of lidar inspections in Puerto Rican archaeology, demonstrates that open-access data can help guide research and save time in field surveys, thus improving our ability to protect the Indigenous cultural heritage hidden under forest canopies.

A recent survey in the Ingenio Valley provides new insight into the nature of the Middle Horizon on the south coast of Peru. A reconsideration of the Tres Palos I and II sites could provide a new perspective on Wari expansion into the region.

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.

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.

Rescue excavations at the site of Macabalaca (PV35-72) in the Huarmey Valley, Peru, identified a rectangular structure with niches on its walls and a floor with a central hearth. We present results of those excavations, emphasizing the stratigraphic components and relative chronology. We conclude that the structure belongs to the Kotosh Religious Tradition (KRT) and can be preliminarily placed in the Late Archaic (2800–1800 BC) or Early Formative period (1800–1200 BC).

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.

Although direct evidence of civic planning is rare among Mesoamerican sites, such features offer great insight into past practices, intentions, and urban transformation. Using data from the transition to the Late Formative period (ca. 400–300 BC), I argue that direct evidence of urban planning is present in the monumental constructions of Yaxuná in Yucatán, Mexico. There, investigators detected a series of carefully rendered incised lines directly on Floor 6 of the E Group plaza. Along with the buildings' exposed surfaces, incised lines served as visual markers for placing rubble and dry-core fill into two categories: large dry-core stones and small compact fill. These visual distinctions informed the location of features built on top of this fill, including Floor 5 and a causeway spanning the plaza's central axis, distinguished from the white floor surface sascab (a durable product of pulverized limestone) by a red-orange color. The incised lines at Yaxuná grant insight into how ancient builders envisioned public works and then implemented and completed features in a step-by-step design process, which required precision and foresight.

We present an AMS radiocarbon date from a bird image in a cave on the island of Hispaniola in the northern Caribbean. Borbón Cave No. 1 contains a key rock art assemblage that likely reflects a significant part of past native Taíno societies’ symbolic thought and beliefs. The grouping has already served to define one rock art style in the Antilles: the Borbón School. Our sample yielded a date of 890 ± 30 BP (1045–1225 cal AD). This result, as well as additional published dates for the region, confirms that these images were created before European contact with the region. Further dating comparison indicates that Taíno artistic traditions persisted for some years after the arrival and settlement of Spanish colonists on the island.