Color differences between the original illustrations in the Codex Mendoza and the facsimile most widely used by scholars can be calibrated using a standard set of Munsell soil color charts. The discrepancies are potentially misleading about the presence and origin of some pigments used and the cultural significance of what is being shown in the document.

Essential to quipu analysis is identification of the logical structure of the quipu and the internal relationships of the data within that structure. The identification process relies on examining, in detail, the colors, placement, and spacing of the quipu cords, and the knot types and positions on the cords. Spin, ply, and knot directionality have recently become available for 59 otherwise well-described quipus. Here, I examine this additional information in the context of the logic of the quipus. Analysis shows that for these quipus, except for three in which the main cord differs from the other cords, spin and ply are uniform for all the cords on a quipu. For the large majority of the quipus (about 81 percent), knot directionality is also uniform throughout. The 19 percent for which knot directionality is mixed are presented and discussed individually. On them, knot directionality conforms to, and plays a role in, the overall logic of the quipu. It is clear that spin, ply, and knot directionality are not chosen by the quipu-maker on a cord-by-cord basis and they do not serve to distinguish between quantitative and non-quantitative data.

The burial found at Patapatane Cave in the highlands of Arica, northern Chile, yielded an incomplete skeleton of a 20-to-23-year-old female, dating to the end of the Middle Archaic period at 5910 ± 90 B.P. The site is located in a semiarid environment on the eastern side of Sierra de Huaylillas at 3800 m. in the hinterland of Arica, northern Chile. We argue that the missing bones, position of the cranium, and breakage of some elements resulted from both postdepositional human intervention and taphonomic processes. The body was laid to rest in a supine position and after it became skeletonized hunters revisited the inhumation and removed some bone elements. However, the other bones present in situ were not displaced and remained in proper anatomical position, with the exception of the cranium, which was placed vertically on top of the cervical vertebrae. The observed breakage of vertebrae, long bones, and skull seems to have been the result of taphonomic, nonanthropogenic, postburial actions. In reporting on the Patapatane burial, Archaic period funerary patterns from western South America are reviewed to support the notion that early hunters and gatherers systematically manipulated their dead through perimortem and postmortem alterations. These included several processes: (1) processes of body reduction and transformation by removal of body sections or removal of bone elements, cremation, and human remains discarded in domestic middens; and (2) processes of artificial preservation of the dead that included roasting, salting, and artificial mummification. In addition, we recognize the simultaneous existence of intact primary burial and that other skeletons were possibly altered accidentally by postdepositional natural or cultural agents.

In a recent comment Michael Smith argues that the cosmological interpretations of Maya urban layouts proposed in an article by Ashmore and Sabloff are vague and unconvincing. He also summarizes some other comparable studies in order to show that arguments for the cosmological significance of archaeologically recovered urban patterns are, in general, subjective and lack methodological rigor. I argue that his view is an unwarranted generalization and that his references to some archaeoastronomical interpretations do not adequately reflect the advances in this field of research and its relevance for the understanding of ancient city plans. I summarize the results of several studies in Mesoamerica, focusing on Teotihuacan and the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan discussed by Smith, to show that rigorous methods not only have been applied in archaeoastronomical research but also have resulted in explicit conclusions about specific aspects of worldview and political ideology underlying Mesoamerican architecture and urbanism.

I criticize recent applications of the “cosmogram” concept to ancient Maya architecture and cities. Although cosmograms—graphic representations of aspects of the cosmos—are known from Late Postclassic and early colonial Aztec and Maya sources, there is no textual suggestion that buildings or cities were viewed as cosmograms. Numerous authors, however, assert confidently that architectural cosmograms abounded in Classic Maya cities. I examine known cosmograms, describe recent studies of architectural cosmograms, and discuss problems that occur when highly speculative interpretations are phrased as confident empirical findings.