This article discusses a category of conch-shell gorgets, mainly semielliptical in shape, which were produced during the Terminal Classic period in central Mexico and/or the Maya lowlands. We describe the iconography and style of these ornaments, seek precedents in other media for their themes, and use stylistic and epigraphic data to connect them to long-distance economic and political interactions between the Maya region and central Mexico. Although the portraits on most of the gorgets diverge from earlier Classic Maya conventions, neither do they conform to central Mexican canons. Further discoveries of such pendants in archaeological context may clarify their origins and social uses.

This article presents a compositional analysis of metal artifacts from the Postclassic period (a.d. 1100–1450) city of Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico. We document metallurgical production at R-183, an elite residential group and one of the most significant archaeological contexts associated with metalworking at Mayapan. Salvage excavations in 1998 recovered a small cache containing 282 copper bells, two miniature ceramic vessels filled with metal, and production debris including loose casting sprues and miscast bells. Metallographic analysis of a small copper bell and wire fragments from the cache reveals lost-wax casting production techniques. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) of metal artifacts provides insight into the range of metals used by the R-183 metalworkers, which included copper-lead, copper-tin, and copper-arsenic alloys, and how these alloys compare to assemblages recovered from other contexts at the city. Our findings strongly suggest the use of remelting and casting techniques, likely utilizing remelted metals of both West and central Mexican origin, together with the use of imported goods made from a range of copper alloys.

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.

Teotihuacan es reconocido mundialmente como uno de los sitios arqueológicos más importantes para la investigación de las sociedades complejas, sin embargo, y a pesar de estar incluido desde 1987 en la lista de Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad por la UNESCO, en la actualidad enfrenta severos problemas que inciden directa y desfavorablemente en la conservación de los vestigios arqueológicos. Diversas situaciones de carácter administrativo también afectan los acervos que se resguardan de manera muy precaria en las instalaciones, bodegas y los dos museos ubicados dentro de la zona de monumentos.

En los últimos años la exigencia de las cada vez más pobladas comunidades aledañas a la zona arqueológica por tener y mejorar los servicios públicos tanto como el crecimiento de la mancha urbana, ha provocado graves afectaciones al patrimonio arqueológico. Aunado a los problemas económicos del país, la ausencia de una política institucional, la falta de planes de trabajo a mediano y largo plazo encaminados a la preservación de los bienes arqueológicos del sitio, así como de programas dirigidos a las comunidades para concientizarlas e involucrarlas directamente en la conservación, han generado una actitud hostil y de desprecio de los pobladores para con los restos arqueológicos. Sin una estrategia institucional y alternativas viables para los habitantes de las comunidades, la mayor destrucción es ocasionada por los propios pobladores del valle o peor aún, por las instancias de gobierno estatal y municipal encargadas de dotar de los servicios a las comunidades.

En este artículo se analizan algunos de problemas que afectan el patrimonio arqueológico de Teotihuacan. Se hace hincapié en la carencia de planes y programas de trabajo con objetivos a largo y mediano plazo, que ayuden a la preservación de los bienes arqueológicos, así como de la información que constituye los distintos acervos.

This article applies the theory of archaeological semiotics to the study of the “Olmec” style. A semiotic approach differs from an iconographic study because it provides the possibility for complex analysis of all significant traits of material archeological objects without distinction between stylistic and iconographic traits. In this context, the semiotic analysis of the Olmec style as a sign system shows that its particular signs, which can be defined as stylistic traits because of the lack of specific iconographic meanings, simultaneously participated in the creation and transformation of cultural meanings. This phenomenon reflected the “macrosignified” of Formative Mesoamerican cultures, associated with a structure that linked together various meanings throughout the culture.

En la cuenca lacustre de Zacapu a lo largo de su ocupación prehispánica (100 a.C. a 1450 d.C.), la dacita, una roca de origen volcánico, fue un recurso estratégico dentro de la economía regional, con el cual los antiguos habitantes de la zona elaboraron una serie de artefactos líticos ligados tanto a actividades de subsistencia y artesanales como rituales. Las investigaciones iniciadas en 2011 en dos minas-taller del yacimiento de dacita del Cerro Vicente expusieron una explotación extensa y organizada en torno a este recurso. En 2015, a partir de la cobertura LiDAR, se identificó un tercer complejo minero con evidencias de una explotación a cielo abierto y subterránea, esta vez en el yacimiento de Las Minas. Con el fin de comprender los mecanismos de explotación de la dacita, se ha llevado a cabo un análisis espacial de este sitio con distintas escalas de aproximación, para caracterizar las evidencias materiales vinculadas con la actividad extractiva. La combinación en nuestra investigación de la información que aporta el LiDAR y la proveniente de la prospección en el campo, nos ofrece un panorama completo del yacimiento, su organización espacial y funcional en un contexto más amplio como un paisaje prehispánico de extracción.

It was not so long ago, even in my own work, that Teotihuacan art was explained in terms of Aztec meaning (Pasztory 1973). Yet its unique composite character, combined seemingly endlessly from a limited set of signs, was also apparent quite early; and the basic cluster of imagery was defined by many, including Hasso von Winning (1987) and Laurette Séjourné (1956). Their aim was to group the signs around deities or at least into motif clusters. A major division everyone has tried to make is between fertility and war imagery. That notion, too, is Aztec derived, with the twin temple dedicated at Tenochititlan to Tlaloc, the rain god, and to Huitzilopochtli, the war god. We have hung on to this distinction as an intellectual life-belt even though even a cursory study can show that water and war imagery are often intermixed. In a short but provocative article, Kubler (1967) suggested a structural and linguistic reading of Teotihuacan art focusing on images that stand as nouns (main figures) and others as adjectives or adverbs (borders, costumes, etc.). In a long study full of excellent observation, Langley (1986) analyzed the signs and their clustering in the most sophisticated manner so far. The only shortcoming of his study is his search for writing at Teotihuacan and an unwillingness to accept it for what it is: a nonnarrative system of art.

La guerra florida es considerada un conflicto en el cual se enfrentaron, durante muchos años, la Triple Alianza Azteca y los reinos del valle tlaxcalteco-poblano. Por mucho tiempo la xochiyaoyotl se ha estudiado como una guerra ritual, prolongada en el tiempo y basada en un recíproco acuerdo. Según las teorías críticas que avaloran esta tesis, el fin de la xochiyaoyotl era obtener las víctimas cuyo sacrificio proveía la alimentación de los dioses. Sin embargo, en las últimas décadas del siglo XX, gracias al descubrimiento y a la traducción de nuevos documentos relativos a la historia prehispánica, el concepto ritual y religioso de la xochiyaoyotl ha empezado a cuestionarse. La fuente que otorga más detalles sobre la xochiyaoyotl es la obra del cronista chalca Domingo Chimalpahin. Este testimonio da evidencia de enfrentamientos llamados xochiyaoyotl precedentes al reinado de Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina, en que estuvieron involucrados primeramente chalcas y tlacochcalcas y, después, los mexicas. A través del análisis del testimonio de Chimalpahin este estudio busca matizar las teorías acerca de la finalidad puramente ritual de la xochiyaoyotl, avanzando como hipótesis que los mexicas se adueñaron del concepto de xochiyaoyotl, desarrollándolo conforme a las nuevas necesidades políticas sobrevenidas.

Dental indicators of health and subsistence for Postclassic Maya from the island site of Wild Cane Cay, off the coast of southern Belize, are examined. A total of 213 teeth were recovered from 26 individuals in Fighting Conch Mound. This survey documents dental wear, calculus, alveolar resorption, caries, and alveolar abscesses. This study excludes deciduous teeth. The total sample examined in this study contains 188 teeth from 19 adults. In general, the dental sample indicates a healthier diet than what the inland contemporaries of the Fighting Conch Mound individuals were consuming, as shown by lower rates of several pathologies. The dental data support the interpretation that the healthy diet of the Wild Cane Cay Maya was a function of their island setting in the Caribbean. Plant and animal remains generally corroborate the dental findings.

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.

Located at the western edge of the Classic Maya heartland, El Peru-Waka' was one of the most densely aggregated urban cores in the Lowlands. With households packed next to each other, it can be difficult to define where one ends and another begins. Nevertheless, survey and excavation data suggest that differences in household provisioning and generational cycling created considerable variation in household wealth across the city. This paper employs household area (m2) and volume (m3) to calculate Gini coefficients for the El Peru-Waka' urban core and immediate hinterlands to quantify household differentiation across the urban landscape. Comparison of the coefficients for the total study area with those for individual urban zones (core, periurban, hinterland) demonstrate that while El Perú-Waka' exhibits high overall household differentiation, this differentiation is considerably muted within a given urban zone. This demonstrates the impact of settlement location on differences in household size and architectural investment.

La región del río Candelaria se vio en varias ocasiones afectada por los cambios climáticos. Los niveles del río variaron en el transcurso de los siglos significativamente y esto afectó a los chontales de Acalan que vivieron a filo del agua para bien o para mal, ya que su vida giraba alrededor de ella. Sus casas, campos de cultivo y ciudades fueron afectadas por los niveles que alcanzó el río. Las evidencias paleoecológicas conocidas todavía son escasas y los comentarios que se hacen son tentativos, sin embargo, por ser una región de ríos, lagunas y pantanos se sabe que estuvo sometida a momentos críticos y problemáticos, que de alguna manera queda reflejada en la ocupación prehispánica de la región.

Relative to the centuries preceding and following it, the tenth century a.d. in Mesoamerica is poorly understood by scholars. Although there is some regional variation in the timing of these events, archaeologists commonly ascribe a pattern of political decline, dynastic collapse, or social reorganization to this period. Paradoxically, increasing interregional interactions and emergent market exchange networks are also characteristics of macroregional patterns during the tenth century. These contradictory phenomena contribute to confusion surrounding interpretations of this transitional time. This article contributes a comparative dataset from systematic archaeological investigations of El Coyote, a monumental center in the lower Cacaulapa valley, Department of Santa Barbara, Honduras. The late occupational phase contains evidence for Early Postclassic chronological markers, including Tohil Plumbate pottery; obsidian from Pachuca, Hidalgo; and copper metallurgy. Calibrated radiocarbon assays with a 2σ error place these contexts between a.d. 710 and 1040, with a clustering of intercepts circa a.d. 900. These results are consistent with a pattern described throughout Mesoamerica and demonstrate that despite variation in the use of cultural terminology—Epiclassic, Terminal Classic, or Early Postclassic—there is uniformity in the timing of this macroregional interaction.

Drawing upon iconological theory, this article argues that mirrors and blood were regarded as a conceptually linked pair within the imperial ideology of Teotihuacan, Mexico from the second century onward. The relationship between blood and mirrors is shown to have codified with the construction of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan's third largest edifice. This monument's facade was adorned with hundreds of monumental sculptures of oracular mirrors, some number of which incorporated actual mirrors formed of obsidian. I demonstrate that the Teotihuacan mirror sign took obsidian, a form of black volcanic glass that was intensively worked in the city, as a key referent. This monument was also the site of a historically large human sacrifice of more than 200 individuals, an event argued here to have involved bloodletting with obsidian knives and blades. I note that Teotihuacan interest in the mirror icon increased in concert with the city's residents’ application of the reflective material of obsidian to warring and other blood-spilling behaviors. The mirror icon evoked both obsidian as a radiant material, as well as obsidian's potential for application to forceful martial actions. The article concludes that this icon in part signified imperial force, which was made real through the weaponization of the smoking glass.

In this study, I use the type-variety-mode analysis to define the diagnostic ceramic material for the Ik'hubil Ceramic Complex dating to the Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 780–930/1000). The percentages of shared ceramic content indicate that multiple sites in the mid-to-lower Sibun Valley are members of an Ik'hubil Ceramic Sphere. My preliminary analyses of sites in the lower Belize River valley suggest that the Ik'hubil Sphere may extend across a broader area of north-central Belize during the Terminal Classic, discrete from the Spanish Lookout Sphere in the upper Belize Valley. Northern Yucatec traits are identified in ceramics and architecture in the eastern Sibun and Belize Valleys, along with marked changes in foodways. The presence of trading diasporas and more intimate social relationships, such as intermarriage, may explain this mix of local and hybrid forms of material culture introduced by the ninth century in this part of the eastern Maya Lowlands.