The correlation of archaeological features with tephra stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates in the volcanic cordillera of northwestern Costa Rica has provided evidence for an Early to Middle Formative ceramic complex dating to at least 2000 B.C. Tronadora ceramics have been found in association with evidence for early horticulture and sedentism. Stylistic comparisons with other early pottery from Central America have helped with the refinement of our chronology for the earliest sedentary societies in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Differences between Tronadora pottery and the earliest complexes of Mesoamerica and southern Central America indicate a high degree of regionalization in ceramic styles during the Early Formative period. Similarities also indicate, however, the common participation of northwestern Costa Rica and southern Mesoamerica in broad interaction networks at this time. Tronadora pottery does not represent an incipient technology or the result of a diffusion of ceramic production from Mesoamerica or northwestern South America. Instead, it implies the existence of an earlier and still-undefined period of technological experimentation in the Central American isthmus.

Se describe una secuencia cultural y natural correspondiente al Pleistoceno tardío-Holoceno, identificada a unos cinco kilómetros al sur de los Vilos en la costa sur de la región semiárida de Chile, asociada a actividades humanas y fauna fósil. Se desarrollaron excavaciones de control vertical y horizontal para localizar las evidencias paleontologicas y arqueológicas in situ. Se harnearon con agua cerca de 217 m3 de sedimentos lacustres y fueron recuperados por flotación los materiales orgánicos. Tres columnas estratigráficas fueron muestreadas para análisis sedimentológico, microfaunístico, palinológico y paleontológico.

En un primer paso se definió la Formación Quebrada Quereo (Cuaternario) que consta de seis miembros emplazados en un relleno depositado en una fosa tectónica. La ocupación humana, y su interacción con la variabilidad ambiental, faunística y florística, durante el Pleistoceno Superior-Holoceno, es analizada con un criterio multidisciplinario. Se propone un esquema de correlación entre la secuencia de unidades lito-cronoestratigráficas, las condiciones paleogeográficas y bióticas, la secuencia de eventos geomorfológicos y los niveles de la secuencia cultural. El nivel Quereo I (> 11.400 años A.P.) presenta evidencias de probable origen humano asociadas a caza de Equus sp. Condiciones de aridez, al término del Pleistoceno, habrían acelerado la sobreexplotación de megamamíferos (nivel Quereo II) por los 11.100 ± 150 a 9.370 ± 180 A.P. Posteriormente, condiciones sociales y ambientales favorables reactivaron el hábitat de Quereo, representadas por una ocupación Arcaica Tardía (nivel Quereo III), datada en 2.475 ± 90 años A.P., y otra agrocerámica (nivel Quereo IV), fechada en 1.280 ± 75 años A.P.

The recovery of obsidian artifacts in radiometrically dated cultural stratigraphic levels at the Maya site of Cahal Pech (Belize) suggests that there was a flake-to-bladelet sequence of development of obsidian technology in the Belize Valley region of the Maya lowlands. Obsidian artifacts within levels dating to the first half of the early Middle Formative period (1000-850 B.C.) at Cahal Pech consist exclusively of flakes. Prismatic blades first occur in late Middle Formative (650-450 B.C.) levels, and remain the predominant artifact type throughout the subsequent Late Formative and Classic periods. This Middle Formative transition in obsidian artifacts has been recorded elsewhere in Mesoamerica, but the Cahal Pech data represent the first explicitly documented case of the developmental sequence in the central Maya lowlands.

Residential mounds are basic units of archaeological analysis, yet their formation rarely is considered systematically. Large earthen residential mounds, classified by Tourtellot (1983:43, 50) as “tells,” are characteristic of Veracruz and of many Preclassic sites. These low, broad mounds are larger than a house mound, commonly the size of a Maya plazuela group (Stark 1991a:45), and represent the remains of one or more structures. Data on the stratification and artifact characteristics of a Classic-period mound in La Mixtequilla, Veracruz, permit reconstruction of six major formation processes that contribute to the growth of earthern residential mounds. The formation processes of these "tells in miniature" and the relative quantity of fill vs. accretionary growth have important implications for the interpretation of household size, status, and other demographic and social variables.

This paper discusses drained-field studies in Venezuela, beginning with the first investigations two decades ago that focused on field systems themselves and proceeding to recent research by the authors that examined the drained fields of La Tigra as part of a regional-scale project in the state of Barinas. The La Tigra fields are dated to the Late Gaván phase (A.D. 550-1000), a time of extensive habitation in the region. An analysis of excavated pollen samples from the drained fields and a nearby village site has revealed that whereas maize was the predominant plant, there was notable intersite variability in the secondary cultigens. The paper also considers whether population pressure could have prompted the construction of the La Tigra fields. A comparison of archaeological population estimates to estimates of potential population under varying assumptions of productive capacity yields no indication of demographic pressures. We suggest that drained-field construction in this case was motivated primarily by political-economic considerations, part of a strategy whereby the regional elite sought to stimulate and mobilize the production of surplus by village farmers.

Datos sobre asentamiento nuevamente obtenidos en el sitio puuc de Xculoc y sus cercanías (Campeche, México), nos permiten calcular el tamaño de la población de este sector en el momento de su auge (900-1000 D.C.). Los datos incluyen dimensiones de los pisos internos de toda residencia potencial, así como las capacidades de las cisternas subterráneas (chultunes) que constituían las únicas fuentes de agua durante la temporada seca de seis meses (noviembre-mayo). La división de las superficies y capacidades totales por coeficientes basados en datos etnoarqueológicos produce cifras de población menores que las que se habrían obtenido por medio de la aplicación de las proporciones utilizadas en el sitio cercano de Sayil (McAnany 1990; Tourtellot et al. 1990). Los resultados sugieren que es necesario re-examinar los cálculos de la población maya del horizonte Clásico producidos durante los pasados 20 años. La reducción de 30 a 50 por ciento que proponemos tendría implicaciones sustanciales en cuanto a nuestra concepción de la organización económica, política, y social de la sociedad clásica maya.

Archaeological research over several decades has documented extensive areas of relict raised fields throughout the Americas. The existence of huge tracts of fields utilized in a context of complex political evolution has fostered a debate similar to the “hydraulic hypothesis” controversy, originated by Julian Steward and Karl Wittfogel over a generation ago. In this paper I assess recent research and offer a model that is tested with settlement and demographic data from the Juli-Pomata area of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. The key variables of the model are differential levels of surplus production, the control of domestic labor by elite groups, and opportunistic economic strategies by the elite. The Juli-Pomata data support a causal link between complex political organization and the existence of labor-intensive raised-field systems. The simplistic explanations of the hydraulic hypothesis remain untenable, but I argue that more subtle causal relationships exist between political centralization and agricultural intensification.

A puzzling aspect of Prehispanic soil erosion and sedimentation in the Maya Lowlands is the variation noted between different regions. In the Petexbatún region of Guatemala, recent investigations indicate great variation in sedimentation rates between watersheds of different sizes. In some places, soil erosion was slowed by stone terraces, possibly in conjunction with other conservation methods. A review of the surficial geology and other data on terraces from across the Maya Lowlands indicates that variations in the form and distribution of ancient agricultural terracing was probably the result of environmental variability and population pressure largely during the Late Classic period.

Since the 1950s, a decline in stature has been offered as evidence of increasing nutritional stress in prehistoric Maya populations, particularly during the Late Classic collapse. A review of the extant skeletal data, however, reveals very inconsistent support for such a decline. The primary explanation for the variation may reside in the small number of skeletal series that have representatives of more than one time period. Other possible explanations include methodological problems associated with stature reconstruction, reliability in sex determination, and variation in health response according to site size and location.

Para evaluar la ocupación precolombina de la cuenca del Qaracha, realizamos una prospección arqueológica en 1988, la cual produjo evidencias de tres importantes ocupaciones en el área, la primera, baja dominación del estado wari, alrededor de los años 600 D.C., con todos los asentamientos entre 2.800 y 3.650 m snm, teniendo control de los suelos de cultivo identificados con la producción del maíz. Alrededor de los años 900 D.C. todos los sitios wari fueron desocupados, y nuevos sitios se habían construido en posiciones estratégicas en las partes de mayor elevación. El control de los Andes centrales por parte de los inkas resultó en el abandono de los sitios fortificados y la fundación de establecimientos inka (mitimaes) cerca a los antiguos sitios wari. Creemos que el primer cambio fue resultado del colapso del estado wari, seguido por un período muy conflictivo cuando diferentes antiguos integrantes del estado wari se vieron envueltos en guerra. El cambio final puso fin al período convulsionado con el nacimiento del nuevo estado inka en los Andes.

During the Formative period (ca. 1000 B.C.-A.D. 250) at the site of Yarumela in central Honduras, an indigenous society developed that was constructing monumental architecture well before 400 B.C. Experimentation with new building materials and techniques reached a peak ca. A.D. 200 just prior to the site's abandonment, by which time religious temples and elite residences had undergone a transition from simple pole-and-thatch structures to more complex adobe and stone constructions. Overall labor investment in monumental architecture may, on the other hand, actually have declined during this same period.

This paper reevaluates the architectural remains atop Mount Tlaloc in light of recent contributions by Aveni et al. (1988), Broda (1989, 1991a, 1991b), and Townsend (1991). Evidence suggests that there were at least two phases of architectural activity on the mountain. An archaeoastronomical analysis of the ceremonial enclosure leads to the suggestion that the orientation of the structure reveals a paradigm marking out specific days by denoting positions of the sun-at-horizon events at intervals of 20 days. This may be a reference to the nemontemi days of the Mexican 365-day solar calendar. Mount Tlaloc also appears to be associated with other mountains through visual lines that correlate with sunrise on dates when ceremonies were performed in sanctuaries situated on prominent elevations.

Recent excavations at the Late Archaic Period (ca. 3000-1000 B.C.) site of Kilometer 4 on the far south coast of Peru exposed a burial containing the remains of a 45-year-old male. The individual was buried with an unusual assemblage of artifacts that includes bone and shell implements and elaborate and distinctive cotton textiles, as well as a complex of paraphernalia of which some items were apparently associated with the use of hallucinogenic or other substances. Auditory exostoses indicate that the individual had engaged in maritime activities, including diving. Semi-flexed, single interment burials such as this are well known from the coast of northern Chile, but the use of cotton during the Archaic Period on the coast of the south-central Andes has not been well documented in the past.

We use neutron-activation analysis data on Formative- and Classic-period pottery along with analyses of modern ceramics and raw materials to examine changes in ceramic production and consumption on the central Guatemalan Pacific slope at the beginning of the Classic period. In particular, we wonder if the processes that generated regional distributions of two Formative-period wares (White Paste and Fine Red) were the same as or different from the processes that generated regional distribution of Classic-period Flesh ware. We identify probable production zones for the three regionally distributed wares based on raw-material analyses, consideration of the geological context of different zones, and distributional evidence. We find major differences between production/consumption of the Formative and Classic regionally distributed wares. This reinforces the notion that some kind of dramatic historical discontinuity affected the lives of Pacific-slope people around A. D. 200.

We have examined the role of long-distance trade in Prehispanic Ecuador using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and neutron-activation analysis (NAA) of obsidian artifacts from the archaeological sites of El Inga, Chobshi Cave and Site OGSE-46 on the Santa Elena Peninsula. Results indicate that two geological sources east of Quito, Yanaurco-Quiscatola and Mullumica, were the principal source of raw obsidian at these sites. We situate our findings within a broader archaeological context through a review of the literature and a discussion of an earlier provenience study undertaken by us. We express concerns about recent attempts to apply ethnohistoric models to early periods of Ecuadorian prehistory, and argue that despite early exploitation of the principal obsidian sources, long-distance trade in obsidian was initiated at a relatively late date and remained at a surprisingly low level in southern Ecuador during most of prehistory.

Nasca culture and, particularly, Nasca ceramic iconography are held to evolve directly and smoothly out of antecedent Paracas. Yet the data reviewed in this article indicate that Paracas remains in the Río Grande de Nazca drainage, the heartland of Nasca culture on the south coast of Peru, are limited in nature, a fact that makes it difficult to derive Nasca from Paracas in Nazca. In contrast, there are rich and abundant Paracas remains in the Ica, Pisco, and Chincha valleys, at the Paracas type site itself, and along the Bahía de la Independencia. I look to the Ica Valley for the origins of the Nasca style.

Este informe discute intentos iniciales por cultivar maíz con el uso de agua procedente de Hierve el Agua, y también evalúa los análisis de agua y los datos palinológicos disponibles en las terrazas de dicho sitio. La discusión se extiende también a la toxicidad de boro en el sitio, así como al origen de los minerales disueltos en el agua. Urge cooperación entre instituciones de México y en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica con el motivo de experimentar con el cultivo de plantas en Hierve el Agua.