The majority of our knowledge about population structure in Mexico during the Postclassic period (a.d. 900–1520) is based on archaeological data. During this time, populations were in contact with each other through extensive trade networks and via the expansion of powerful empires in central and west Mexico. Though archaeological data provides a wealth of information about these relationships, little is known about the effects of these processes on population structure and biological, morphological variation or whether these effects vary across geographic regions. In this study, dental morphological observations are used as a proxy for genetic data in order to assess the differences in regional population structures throughout Mexico. Our analyses show differences in population structure between the various cultural and geographic areas around Mexico. We further conclude that population structures are affected by economic, political, or religious processes. This study provides bioarchaeological support for archaeological interpretations of population structure in Postclassic Mexico.

This article studies the sculptural corpus of the Matlatzinca state before it was conquered in the mid-1470s by the Aztec Empire. Previously, Matlatzinco had been an independent polity in the northern part of the Valley of Toluca surrounding the traditional center of government, which was also called Matlatzinco. After invading the area, the Aztecs renamed this city Calixtlahuaca and established their own provincial capital at nearby Tollocan (modern Toluca). Making Calixtlahuaca a symbol of control over the area, the Aztecs raised new architecture phases in the ancient city center and installed Aztec-style deity images.

This paper explores the ancient Nahua concept of “father,” employing early Colonial sources written in both Nahuatl and Spanish. A careful contextual analysis of the occurrences of various Nahuatl terms for “father” or “parent” leads to the conclusion that the principal criterion for creating their metaphorical extensions differed considerably from parallel Spanish criterion. While the latter referred to the power relationship (“father” is the one who governs), the former was based on the concept of exchange (“father” is the one who gives). This principle has implications for studying many aspects of Nahua culture in which the terms for “father” appear: gender and social roles, political hierarchy, pre-Hispanic religion, or evangelization. The difference in the construction of such basic concepts in Nahuatl and Spanish leads to methodological considerations about studying sources that have arisen from the context of cultural contact.

This article explores the materiality of the colors of some Nahua codices from pre-Columbian Mexico, comparing data obtained from two bodies of evidence: scientific investigation—through macroscopic inspection and physicochemical studies—and historical accounts. In doing so, this article shows that the Colonial period literature contributes to the understanding of the creation process of the codices and their chromatic palettes, in particular regarding some coloring materials, the identification of which still remains a challenge for scientists. The comparison carried out in this article also elucidates certain aspects of the historical texts on Mesoamerican colors, which were previously poorly understood or misinterpreted.

This article aims to fill in some of the lacunae that still exist regarding the Cohuixca ethnicity of the northeastern part of the State of Guerrero. To do so, it introduces a qualitative methodological approach into ethnohistory, which discerns pervasive patterns of special understanding that guided indigenous testimony in the colonial Spanish courtroom. It emphasizes that early colonial Cohuixca testimonies were deeply influenced by what are called, in Western terms, cadastral maps or cartographic histories or, in Nahuatl, amoxtli tlalamatl altepeamatl (“land papers,” titles of each town and district) in the former Cohuixca province of Tepecoacuilco (Cohuixcatlacapan), these geographical elements being heavily reinforced by oral retelling. Therefore, in order to establish a seemingly coherent plot of the past that would overcome fragmentation and chaos, the indigenous witnesses appearing in our sources relied heavily on unique visual schemata that assisted them in assembling the mental shreds and remnants of past experiences to restore them within the traditional framework and formulae of information transmission only modestly affected by the Spanish conquest.

Discovery of dozens of broken ceramic roof ornaments (almenas) on the floor abutting the front (western) margin of an elite residence (Structure Q-1) at Cihuatan, El Salvador provides a new context for this category of artifacts. While relatively well-known from sites in the Valley of Mexico, elsewhere in Mesoamerica almenas have been documented only from a single Teotihuacan-style structure at the lowland Maya site of Tikal, one structure at Mayapan, and possibly at a few other sites in Yucatan. A preliminary program to reconstruct a portion of the many box-like almenas at Cihuatan, of a date much later than the one from Tikal, generated seven relatively complete examples of this form, indicated that fragments of perhaps another 50 had been recovered, and that they were used in pairs. The reconstructed sample provides an important demonstration of the ornamentation on an elite residence and also reveals much about how Structure Q-1 and surrounding buildings came to an end, around a.d. 1200. At least eight other buildings at Cihuatan had been adorned with almenas, each building having examples of one specific shape, possibly unique to this city. Comparisons with Aztec and earlier Mexican forms suggest cultural connections, perhaps via Tula. These findings strongly suggest Mexican influences for the use and forms of roof ornaments at Cihuatan.

The unexpected discovery of two reused fragments of an ancient mantic manuscript in Oaxaca casts new insights on scribal and divinatory practices at the eve of the Spanish conquest. This paper describes, analyzes, and interprets the faded inscriptions in the two fragments, comparing the structure of the calendrical notations and the painted imagery with those written on the handful of extant pre-Hispanic screenfolds. Although certain patterns allow us to posit the possible relationship between the fragments, other seeming deviations in the reckonings of the divinatory calendar lead us to conclude that the manuscript from which the two fragments originate evinces a distinct scribal and mantic regional variant.

En los últimos años los análisis de densidad poblacional y distribución espacial conforman temas medulares sobre el desarrollo de las sociedades. Una manera de abordar estos temas en la capital olmeca de San Lorenzo, Veracruz, gira en torno al análisis y la interpretación de las pruebas de barreno realizadas de manera sistemática e intensiva. El presente estudio permitió reconstruir el número y tamaño de las estructuras arquitectónicas ubicadas en los diversos sectores del sitio y, a partir de éstos, estimar el número total de pobladores en el asentamiento con el fin de llegar a inferir tendencias en el desarrollo de la primera capital olmeca.

This article presents an in-depth analysis of an important mural painting discovered within Structure 10K2 of the Los Sabios Group at the Classic Maya site of Xultun, Guatemala. We first discuss the composition of the mural scene and its central protagonist, a Late Classic period (a.d. 550–900) ruler of Xultun named Yax We'nel Chan K'inich, suggesting that it presents a ritual performance associated with an ancient New Year ceremony. Several attendant figures in the mural are labeled as members of a specialist order or category called Taaj, “obsidian,” and are marked by an unusual shared appearance. This “obsidian order” exhibits internal hierarchical ranking and is attested at other Classic Maya centers. In addition to discussing the overall content of the Xultun mural scene, we conduct a focused inquiry into these various Taaj individuals by presenting associated archaeological evidence and considering related epigraphic data. Through this analysis of the Taaj, we shed light on a previously unknown aspect of Maya courtly life and organization that is relevant to models of sovereignty, governance, and ritual performance in the Classic Maya world.

Chultunes — underground pits carved into bedrock — have been reported by the hundreds in the Maya region, yet debate on their principal use continues to this day. Since chultunes have not yielded solid data to answer the questions posed by Maya archeologists, they are sometimes not completely excavated or reported in detail. This article presents a review of previous work on chultunes in the Maya lowlands, followed by the presentation of new data from six chultunes excavated at archaeological sites in northwestern Petén, Guatemala. I argue that, although these underground features were primarily used for utilitarian purposes, there is strong evidence that chultunes also had ritual importance to the ancient Maya. The variability in the shape, size, and associated cultural materials, including macrobotanical remains, justifies further in-depth investigations of chultunes. Archaeologists should consider investigating these features more systematically, as a larger comparative sample of chultunes could aid in assessing whether there are local patterns of construction, use, and reuse. Thus, excavations of these features should be encouraged.

This paper presents the results of investigations at the ancient Maya site of Margarita in south-central Quintana Roo, Mexico, and relates them to documented patterns at neighboring centers. Following initial settlement of the region in the Middle Preclassic, settlement hierarchies topped by large centers with monumental architecture, carved monuments, and associations with sites to the south emerged in the Late Preclassic to Early Classic periods. In the Late Classic, several primary centers declined and there was a proliferation of affluent urban populations—evidenced by construction of elaborate residential groups—at smaller centers like Margarita. Long-distance cultural affiliations shifted as well, with ceramic and architectural links to western and northern Yucatán becoming pronounced. Many settlements were abandoned in the Terminal Classic, but there is also evidence of the formation of “post-collapse” communities at Margarita and other neighboring sites during the same period.

This article reviews data from the modern highland Maya area in order to develop a model of vessel discard frequencies applicable to Classic Maya contexts. Estimating the number of pots consumed by ancient households is crucial to reconstructing the organization of ceramic production and exchange in antiquity. The recent publication of in situ household assemblages from the Classic Maya center of Aguateca facilitates an analysis of household pottery use during the Late Classic period. Vessel class use-lives derived from ethnoarchaeological studies are applied to the Aguateca assemblages to estimate annual consumption rates. The simulated Aguateca discard assemblages are then compared to archaeologically recovered vessel class discard frequencies from the Classic Maya center of Tikal. The article concludes with a discussion of how and why pottery requirements for Classic Maya households differed from those of twentieth century Maya and the implications these distinctions have for interpreting consumption pattern for the Classic Maya.

Teams from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have put forth a new chronology for Chichen Itza that challenges recent scholarly opinion favoring a date of roughly a.d. 800/850–1000/1050 for the so-called “Toltec” or Modified Florescent occupation. The new chronology instead argues for the placement of this occupation between a.d. 950–1150, a span favored by scholars prior to the 1970s. This paper presents a critique of the ceramic, radiocarbon, and stratigraphic foundations of these arguments, arguing that, on present evidence, Chichen Itza experienced a tenth-century florescence. Although the site may very well have been occupied into the next century, at present we have no absolute dates after a.d. 1000 and no evidence for later monumental construction. Furthermore, arguments for a proposed hiatus or discontinuity at the onset of the Modified Florescent period are rejected in favor of a model of continued development of Toltec ideas from the late ninth century onward.

This study addresses the role of prehistoric ethnopolitical divisions, factionalism, and alliances in macroregional economic models. The Mesoamerican Late Postclassic period (a.d. 1350–1525) is characterized by its “cosmopolitan” economy featuring long distance exchange of raw materials and finished products. Such characterizations are examined through a provenance analysis of small obsidian projectile points from the Maya lowlands of Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. Obsidian artifacts are analyzed using portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and social network analysis (SNA) methods, revealing at least four sub-networks of point procurement that belonged to nine different ethnopolitical divisions. Local production of points is approached using a novel method of two-mode analysis, demonstrating in some cases that the sources of local obsidian debitage and debris did not coincide with the sources of finished point assemblages. Such information reveals the intricacies of Maya exchange and stresses the importance of local political geography during the Late Postclassic.

“Mesoamerican Cultural Astronomy and the Calendar” is a Special Section including articles that explore portions of Mesoamerica where astronomy and calendars were studied by Indigenous peoples. Scholars who are well known for innovative work in astronomy, such as Aveni, as well as Pineda de Carías, Rivera, and Argueta, consider topics that fall under the rubric of cultural astronomy. Epigraphers or experts in hieroglyphic writing, like Justeson and Vail, deal in explicit ways with issues related to calendar development. An art historian, Milbrath, weighs in on the meaning of astronomical and calendar themes using important documents incorporating both images and texts. An archaeologist, Dowd, and an architect, Carrasco, discuss architectural complexes with orientations significant in horizon-based astronomy. This rich cross-disciplinary collection of articles debuts new discoveries that interweave astronomy, time measurement, and ritual behavior commemorating cycles of death and rebirth among Maya peoples who lived between a.d. 225–1519 in what is now Honduras, Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala.

This study explores the mythology surrounding the appearances and disappearances of Venus from the sky and the role the morning and evening star aspects of Venus played in Maya divinatory and astronomical texts. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources link the morning star aspect of Venus with a series of bearded hunting deities. Representations of these figures—armed with the accoutrements of Venus—have recently been identified in the hunting almanacs of the Madrid Codex. Other codical manifestations of Venus include the rain deity Chaak, who appears as both the morning and evening star, and the merchant deity God M, who may have had evening star associations in certain contexts. Significant correspondences exist between the Maya Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh and the War Twins highlighted in creation narratives of Zuni culture, who correspond to the morning and evening star. The celestial roles of both sets of twins will be explored to better understand their function in ceremonial and calendrical contexts.

Analysis of the two largest southern Maya lowland metal assemblages, from Lamanai (n = 187) and Tipu (n = 99), Belize reveals that Mesoamerican and European technologies were negotiated through the processes of recycling objects to create new forms and juxtaposing objects of different provenances for bodily ornamentation. Lamanai's occupants began acquiring metal as early as a.d. 1100 and then engaged in on-site metallurgy as early as a.d. 1450, continuing into the early seventeenth century. Tipu was a nexus for metals between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. At both sites, metal objects were recovered primarily from human burials and midden deposits. A program of typological study and compositional analysis revealed forms shared between the sites but evidence of on-site metallurgy is supported only at Lamanai. Metals from these Maya communities, both centers of Spanish reducción, demonstrate that the southern Maya lowlands was by no means a “refuge” from Spanish aggression.

Research presented here demonstrates that an unusual almanac in the Madrid Codex (pages 12–18) integrates observations of the Venus cycle with eclipse events in the context of the agricultural year. Imagery in the 260-day almanac represents eclipse glyphs associated with Tzolkin dates that coordinate with eclipses visible in Yucatan during the fifteenth century, indicating the almanac dates to the Late Postclassic. The almanac also depicts seasonal events in the context of a repeating pattern of paired solar eclipses associated with observations of Venus as the evening star. Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan's counterpart in the Madrid almanac is the Chicchan serpent, who plays the role of Venus in a sequence showing a fertile aspect of the planet linked with the 260-day agricultural cycle and the Pleiades. Clearly, Venus positions and eclipse events were closely watched in relation to the planting cycle, reflecting a form of “agro-astronomy” that we are only now beginning to understand.