The Great Pyramid of Cholula is both the largest and oldest continuously occupied building in Mesoamerica. Initial occupation of the ceremonial precinct began in the Late Formative period, and the first building stage of the pyramid dates to the Terminal Formative. The Great Pyramid was built in four major construction stages and at least nine minor modifications. Early stages shared stylistic similarities with Teotihuacan, but toward the end of its construction history external contacts shifted to the Gulf Coast, particularly El Tajin, and probably relate to occupation by ethnic Olmeca-Xicallanca. The fourth and final stage was contemporary with extensive construction on the south side at the Patio of the Altars, and dates to the Early Postclassic period. This period ended, however, with the partial abandonment of the pyramid when ethnic Tolteca-Chichimeca constructed a ceremonial center around their “new” Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl. The Great Pyramid continued as an important shrine dedicated to mountain worship and a rain deity until the Spanish Conquest. It remains one of the most important religious sites in Mexico, where the shrine of the Virgin of the Remedies attracts pilgrims to the church atop the pyramid mound during the annual festival. This paper summarizes the archaeological and ethnohistorical information available to reinterpret the construction history and ideological content of the pyramid throughout its long existence.

Systematic survey of 1,000 km2 in a mountainous zone of the Mixteca Alta in Oaxaca, Mexico, has produced detailed architectural data at a large number of pre-Hispanic settlements. One unusual architectural form, circular stone foundations, apparently dates to the Late Postclassic period. Comparisons to similar architectural forms described in the archaeological and ethnographic literature of Mesoamerica and in the Mixtec codices suggest that they may have been sweatbaths. Analysis of their regional distribution and site contexts leads to interesting conclusions about additional contexts for sweatbath ritual. The symbolic link between royal birth, marriage, and sweatbath ritual is clear in the Mixtec codices. An additional use may have been in rituals affirming community identity and marking community boundaries. We suggest a further connection to the use of sweatbaths in Mixtec toponyms and their association with sacred places on the Mixtec landscape, both of which reflected the importance of marriage alliance and female royal inheritance in the territorial strategies of Postclassic Mixtec kingdoms.

The Late Classic Maya abandonment of the Copan Valley, Honduras, began in the ninth century a.d. and lasted approximately 250–300 years. The relationship between local ecological setting and residential group abandonment is examined by applying event-history analysis to the known occupation spans of 140 residential mound groups, dated by obsidian hydration. Late Classic households in ecologically vulnerable sections of the Copan Valley—as measured by slope, soil type, and natural vegetation—had significantly higher risk of abandonment than households in more ecologically stable settings. Abandonment risk rises sharply in all regions at the end of the seventh century a.d. Both computerized agricultural simulations and settlement demographic reconstructions indicate that increased levels of agricultural intensification necessary to meet the subsistence needs of Copan's growing population would have led to large-scale erosion in upland areas and a significant reduction of soil fertility in all regions of the valley at that time. Mound-group abandonment patterns tend to support the hypothesis that environmental degradation played a dominant role in the collapse of the Copan polity.

The importance of Maya sea trade was the sea's integrating role as provider of ritual and subsistence resources and ritual symbolism in the Maya economy. Coastal as opposed to inland transportation of obsidian and other exotics was enhanced because of coastal–inland exchange within the southern Maya lowlands. Results are presented on fieldwork conducted to investigate Maya sea trade by the South Coastal Archaeology in Belize (SCAB) project in the Port Honduras area of south-coastal Belize between Punta Gorda and Punta Negra. The research focused on identifying features characteristic of Maya trading ports that participated in long-distance trade and their impact on regional economies. The first part of the project, with fieldwork in 1982, identified the offshore island site of Wild Cane Cay as a trading port from the Classic through Postclassic periods (a.d. 300–1500). The discovery of some 30 sites during the second phase of the project, dating from the Protoclassic through the Postclassic periods (a.d. 1–1500), indicated that the coastal area had a long period of settlement in contrast to the inland area of southern Belize where settlement was concentrated during the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–900). The patterns of distribution of similar-sourced obsidian, and blades instead of cores within the south-coastal area indicated that some exotics were regionally distributed and that Wild Cane Cay was the nexus of regional distribution. The importance of coastal-inland exchange is underscored by the presence of specialized salt-production sites, coastal resources, and inland goods—notably “unit-stamped” pottery and moldmade figurine whistles.

The Chajoma were a major Late Postclassic polity in highland Guatemala. Referred to as the Akajal or Akul in the Annals of the Cakchiquels and Popol Vuh, their territory previously has not been fully defined. Based on a small group of sixteenth-century documents preserved in the records of a later litigation, it is now possible to identify the origins of the Chajoma, approximate the time of their arrival in their new territory, and define the extent of their territory. Combined with information on archaeological sites associated with this occupation, we can provisionally characterize the polity's composition and estimate its population.

This study examines the geometry of the architecture of the Teuchitlan tradition of western Mexico. An argument will be made that these concentric circular buildings represent formal architectural planning and that they have cultural significance. The pattern dating from the Classic period (ca. a.d. 200–700) will be stressed.

Classic-period settlement in the Teuchitlan region of West Mexico is characterized by the presence of unique, formal circular structures surrounded by residential areas. Previous research in the area has suggested the presence of a four-tiered settlement hierarchy based on the size of these structures, although, to date, this judgment has been made on a largely impressionistic basis. Our research further examines Weigand's Teuchitlan settlement data. We present a theoretical perspective for understanding the role of sites with formal architecture and evaluate the presence of a site-size hierarchy through volumetric estimations. Scenarios for site interaction are suggested by our use of a gravity model. Our primary goal is to propose models of Teuchitlan settlement organization, which can be tested by ongoing fieldwork in the region.

Excavaciones recientes de rescate en el sitio de Huitzilapa, en la cuenca de Magdalena, centro de Jalisco, resultaron en el descubrimiento y la excavación de una tumba de tiro no saqueada. Se describen la tumba y sus contenidos, y se presenta una serie de fechas de radiocarbono que se concentran en el primer sigio de nuestra era. Las excavaciones proporcionan datos importantes sobre el contexto de las conocidas figuras de las tumbas de tiro, la cronología de este distinctivo complejo mortuorio y la relación de los ambos con la arquitectura de la tradición Teuchitlán.

Many social scientists have proposed a relationship between the structure of a boundary and that of the system it delimits. Substantial anthropological and historical research has found the same tendency in analyses of traditional political structure. A model based on these findings was applied to the Teuchitlan tradition of Classic-period West Mexico, a region where the degree of political complexity and unification has been a subject of debate. A focused study of the eastern boundary of the Teuchitlan Valley was undertaken to examine the nature of its political structure. Fieldwork located a number of defensive features forming a well-structured boundary system in the La Venta corridor that connects the Teuchitlan and Atemajac Valleys. Other fortifications ringing the Teuchitlan Valley strongly suggest that a defensive network had been established to monitor access into the core of the Teuchitlan area. A unitary, territorial form of administration (following the work of Southall and Luttwak) is proposed as a model for political dynamics in the core region, but a review of the evidence for the more-distant Teuchitlan architecture suggests that, at most, only a hegemonic form of control more akin to that of the segmentary state was exercised outside of the core valley. A connection with long-distance resource acquisition is possible, but highly speculative at present.

Scholars of West Mexico generally rely on the ceramic figurine tradition found in shaft tombs for interpreting the prehistory of the Late Preclassic period. Three new projects on shaft-tomb ceramics seek to advance our understanding of the Late Formative culture and societies of this region. First, ceramic figures are examined for evidence of the ball game in West Mexico; second, for cultural information about domestic and community organization; and third, for ways to differentiate authentic figures from modern reproductions.

This study investigates prehistoric West Mexican mortuary activities as technological systems. Specifically, the production, distribution, and use of mortuary ceramics are considered within a social context. Technological changes occurring between the Late Formative and Classic periods (200 b.c.–a.d. 700) at the site of Tabachines are compared to changes occurring at the center of the Teuchitlan tradition, 50 km away. At Tabachines, all aspects of the technology point to profound social change: tomb construction, treatment of the dead and offerings, and the approach to the production and use of mortuary ceramics. These changes are considered within a regional scope.

Recent research in the Sayula Basin of central Jalisco is gradually presenting a fuller view of the lifeways that characterized the people who lived on this thoroughfare, traditionally known for its vast salt flats. Salvage excavations undertaken at two major sites have supplied a number of new elements that are confirming and expanding previous knowledge of the chronological sequence, the ceramic complexes, the uses of space within an apparently closed area, and the possible sphere of interactions developed by the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of this part of western Mexico. Special attention is given to evidence relating to the study of native salt production.