As a consequence of long-term archaeological research at Copan, 1,425 archaeological sites containing 4,507 structures have been located and mapped over an area of 135 km2. As part of the PAC II research, 200 archaeological sites representing a 15% stratified random sample of all valley sites were test excavated from 1983–1989. From these excavations, 2,150 obsidian hydration dates were processed, representing the largest number of chronometric dates from controlled contexts currently available from any southern Lowland Maya site. Based on this chronological research, there appears to be an excellent fit with various other available chronological techniques for all time phases except the ending date of the important Coner ceramic phase, which now appears to have extended to A.D. 1250. This more detailed Copan chronology suggests that the political collapse of the Main Group and immediate vicinity was quite sudden, taking place c. A.D. 800–830. Beyond that, however, the chronometric data provide evidence that some of the secondary elite, or lineage heads, and large numbers of rural commoners continued to reside within the valley in reduced courtyard groups or small rural hamlets for about 400 years following the decentralization of the Copan polity.

Regional settlement studies in the Maya area have provided a basis for understanding the importance of subsistence strategies, but have not addressed the issue of how the settlements themselves are differentiated. This article examines Maya settlement patterns of the Belize River area and uses data from residential-unit midden tests to identify aspects of settlement variation. These variations are examined with respect to general landform characteristics. Much of the variation appears to relate to the productive capacity of agricultural resources in the area. This is no surprise, since the ancient Maya were an agrarian society.

With systematic surface collections from the Mixtequilla region of Veracruz, Mexico, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis distinguish two Postclassic complexes and permit examination of their associated settlement patterns. Comparison of pottery types to other assemblages provides cross dating and allows judgments about stylistic affinities. The earlier of the two complexes, assigned to the Middle Postclassic, ca. a.d. 1200–1350, exhibits characteristics of the “Mixteca-Puebla horizon.” The second complex dates to the Late Postclassic, a.d. 1350–1521, when the region was affected by imperial expansion of the Aztec Triple Alliance. Both complexes, but particularly the one from the Middle Postclassic, show marked changes in settlement pattern, material culture, and trade patterns. Changes in trade, stylistic emulation, or major population movement are insufficient to account for the evidence. Instead, political realignment, likely coupled with other factors, is a more promising interpretation.

Models of polity organization in the northern Maya lowlands are often based on the distribution of ceramic types. These models do not account for crucial links between the processes of ceramic production, distribution, use, and discard and sociopolitical relationships. We discuss several models of ceramic economy. These models suggest that the distribution of some serving vessels may encode information concerning sociopolitical relationships. These models are evaluated in light of stratigraphic evidence from Yaxuna and Uxmal, in order to elucidate the nature of polity at Chichen Itza. We argue that the ceramic data are ambiguous concerning the proposed existence of a large conquest state centered on the capital.

Anthropologists have long speculated that ancient peoples of Mesoamerica used a toad, Bufo marinus, as a ritual intoxicant. This hypothesis rests on many iconographic and mythological representations of toads and on a number of speculative ethnographic reports. We reject B. marinus as a candidate for such use because of the toxicity of its venom. A more likely candidate is the Sonoran desert toad, Bufo alvarius, which secretes large amounts of the potent, known hallucinogen, 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT). We demonstrate that the venom of B. alvarius, though known to be toxic when consumed orally, may be safely smoked and is powerfully psychoactive by that route of administration. These experiments are the first documentation of a hallucinogenic agent from the animal kingdom, and they provide clear evidence of a psychoactive toad that could have been employed by Precolumbiae peoples of the New World.

This paper discusses the results of recent instrumental neutron-activation analysis (INNA) work identifying the obsidian sources relied upon in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz in pre-Hispanic times. Our research indicates that Guadalupe Victoria and, secondarily, Zaragoza obsidian were the main sources imported to the Tuxtlas during the Early and Middle Formative periods. In contrast, Zaragoza became the dominant source relied upon from Late Formative times onward. Data on obsidian color and raw-material quality make it possible to extend the INAA results to the entire obsidian assemblage from the Tuxtlas.

In this paper we illustrate the distinctive settlement patterns of the city of Chunchucmil during its largest occupation in the middle of the Classic period (a.d. 400–650). The unusually dense urban settlement showcased a network of boundary walls and chichbes surrounding residential groups and narrow streets winding between the tightly bounded houselots. Using a sample of 392 completely and unambiguously bounded houselots, we review the basic characteristics, the structural composition, and variability of late Early Classic and early Late Classic residential groups. Then, we explore how these city dwellers may have experienced their urban environment. Our focus is on understanding how the material aspects of the socially constructed space affected people's practices and how this materiality helped create and define specific household identities as well as extra-household social bonds.

The southern Lowland Maya hilltop center of Kinal is shown to be a human-modified watershed. The broad paved surfaces of the elevated central precinct acted as runoff-catchment areas directing precipitation into gravity-fed channels and reservoirs. In a geographical zone affected by an extended dry season and away from permanent water sources, Kinal demonstrates the components of a rainfall-dependent water-management system characteristic of other large sites in the region.

Although it has long been clear that craft specialists were present in Late Classic Lowland Maya society, it has proven difficult to identify chipped-stone lithics actually used in craft production. This article outlines a model, based on design theory, that can be used to identify the attributes of tools likely to have been used by lapidary and carpentry craft specialists, and tests it against an assemblage of tools analyzed through microwear analysis from Late Classic assemblages from the central Peten lakes region.

Beginning with Building 4, each new version of the Moon Pyramid in Teotihuacan was initiated with a major sacrificial event. These events invariably included human victims, males ranging in age from about 14 to 60 or more years (Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) = 37). Many display cranial modification and dental decoration. In the earliest offering, Burial 2, the lone human was merely one element in a complex tableau. In subsequent sacrifices, the human victims increased in number and became a major focus of the event. There was also a growing dichotomy among them, with numbers of decapitated victims being included in the sacrifices. Skeletal elements from the pyramid fill suggest still other rituals involving human crania (MNI = 11), but the context of these is not yet clear.

In this paper, we present a diachronic analysis of obsidian procurement patterns during the Postclassic period in the Lower Río Verde region of Oaxaca. The study is based on x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and visual analysis of obsidian artifacts from excavated household contexts at Early Postclassic (a.d. 800–1100) Río Viejo and Late Postclassic (a.d. 1100–1522) Tututepec (Yucu Dzaa). We report the presence of at least six sources of obsidian imported to the lower Río Verde region in the Early Postclassic, whereas during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the Late Postclassic, the local assemblage was dominated by obsidian from Pico de Orizaba and Pachuca. Changes in obsidian procurement patterns in the lower Río Verde region through time are interpreted in light of sociopolitical change at the local, regional, and macroregional scales. The study represents the most detailed analysis of Postclassic period obsidian exchange yet reported from Oaxaca.

Research at the ancient Maya city of Yaxuna, located in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula, has provided sufficient data to suggest a preliminary chronological framework for the cultural development of this large polity. Primary ceramic and stratigraphie data are presented to support a five-phase scheme of cultural history, encompassing the Middle Formative through Postclassic periods (500 b.c.–a.d. 1250). In addition to chronological significance, the political ramifications of a pan-lowland ceramic trade are addressed. Yaxuna experienced an early florescence in the Late Formative–Early Classic periods, when it was the largest urban center in the central peninsula. A second renaissance in the Terminal Classic period was the result of Yaxuna's role in an alliance between the Puuc and Coba, in opposition to growing Itza militancy. This paper proposes a chronological framework for the cultural development of one northern Maya region in order to facilitate an understanding of this area as part of the overall history of polity interaction and competition in the Maya lowlands.

Recently, a major debate has arisen over the interpretation of Monte Albán Tomb 7. This debate hinges, in part, on whether the skeletal assemblage comprised either primary or secondary burials. Previous studies of Mesoamerican mortuary practices generally have recognized only primary and secondary burials in tombs. Findings from a recently excavated tomb in Ejutla, Oaxaca, demonstrate that a third possibility exists: multiple-interment tomb assemblages. These assemblages result from a process we call “ongoing tomb use.” Based on comparisons with the Ejutla interments we propose that the Monte Albán Tomb 7 assemblage may have resulted from ongoing tomb use.

This paper examines the composite lithic artifacts of the ancient Maya commonly termed “mirrors.” Typically flat, shiny objects with polished iron-ore polygons fitted in a mosaic pattern onto a slate backing, we assess these plaques for the technological, spatiotemporal, and functional contexts of their manufacture. Data from over 500 archaeological specimens, from dozens of Maya sites in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, were examined as part of this study. We also consider the iconography, epigraphy, and possible symbolism of these curious artifacts. Based on this analysis, we conclude that ancient Maya mosaic mirrors were employed in rituals, often by elite individuals, as both symbols of authority but also, importantly, as possible mystical devices for divinatory “scrying.” They were highly valued, often beautifully made, reflective ceremonial objects whose possible use for prognostication in shamanic rites likely has great antiquity in Mesoamerica.

Our investigations at the lowland Maya center of Ceibal have demonstrated that a formal spatial pattern consisting of an E-Group assemblage and large platforms started around 1000 b.c. and gradually expanded over the next several centuries. A re-evaluation of ceramic and radiocarbon data from other lowland Maya sites suggests that the beginning of sedentary life and ceramic use in various parts of the Maya lowlands started roughly simultaneously around 1000 b.c., which may have been triggered by a change in maize productivity. The standardized spatial pattern including the E-Group assemblage probably developed in the Isthmian Interaction Sphere, encompassing the southern Gulf Coast, central Chiapas, the Chiapas-Guatemalan Pacific Coast, and Ceibal, during the transitional period between the decline of San Lorenzo and the rise of La Venta as a major center (1200–800 b.c.). Most of the lowland Maya communities adopted the E-Group assemblage after 800 b.c., but not other elements of the standardized spatial pattern.

Pollen and charcoal analysis of a 5.3-m sediment core from Aguada Petapilla, a peat bog, provides evidence of late Holocene vegetation and fire history in the Copan Valley, Honduras. Low concentration and preservation problems characterized the pollen flora, but there are taxa present indicative of major agricultural trends, including Zea mays. Microscopic charcoal fragments are well represented and record continued burning in the region since the lowest level of the core (5700 B.P. [3750 B.C.]). Presence of Zea indicates that maize farming was initiated by as early as 2300 B.C. Three peaks in charcoal-fragment frequencies occur in periods centered approximately at 900 B.C., 400 B.C., and A.D. 600. Fires in this relatively dry region of the southern Maya Lowlands (whose mean annual rainfall is about 1,400 mm) could have resulted from natural forest fires or human agricultural clearing at any time in the Holocene. This contrasts with wetter areas of tropical Central and South America (mean annual rainfall of about 2,500–4,000 mm) where significant climatic drying is required to ignite primary tropical forest.

The study of changes in the social organization of maize preparation provides an important opportunity to examine the integration of households into larger systems of social and economic relationships. Spatial analysis of the distribution of manos and metates at Otumba demonstrates a change in maize production from individual, household based to a more specialized system. It is hypothesized that scarcity of firewood for cooking was a causal factor for this change, but more evidence is needed to test this idea.

A regional investigation of the ancient Maya settlement patterns of the Puuc suggests that this region was occupied by increasing numbers of people seeking to maximize control over prime agricultural soils during the Late Classic period. During the Late Classic the eastern Puuc region was controlled by numerous autonomous major centers that carried on the Classic Maya tradition of divine kingship. During the late ninth century a.d., the city of Uxmal briefly emerged as the politically dominant center of the region and was involved in an important relationship with the city of Chichen Itza. By a.d. 950, however, Uxmal and the other major centers of the Puuc had ceased all important elite activities.

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.

Significant indirect evidence suggests that one of the Classic-period residential groups at Tikal was the residence of a family of potters who produced high-quality painted wares. Delineation of the borders of residential Group 4H-1 at Tikal led me to postulate that the bajo was a major resource zone for ceramic manufacturing rather than a spatially limiting feature. This family of upscale ceramic producers used the adjacent bajo as a source of clay and fuel for firing pottery. The configuration of other groups near Group 4H-1 suggests not only that the people occupying the several groups on this peninsula were related, but that they were all involved in the production, painting, and distribution of fine ceramics. These several residential groups, located on adjacent house lots, define a barrio within Tikal whose occupants formed an extended kin unit sharing an economic focus on the production of high-quality ceramics. A consideration of the contents of trash deposits that were used by the Maya for building fill and a study of the middens found adjacent to residential groups at Tikal provide clues to the location of a specific kiln, or firing area. Broken pottery in the structure fill tells us more than architectural history. In this example, pottery indicates how other aspects of one or more house lots were organized and used. In particular, these data suggest that a barrio-like cluster of households at Tikal, with its own ritual center (Group 5G-I), housed families of ceramic producers who had specifically located their residences in direct proximity to the bajo. The search for the firing facilities associated with the production of ceramics in Group 4H-1 is now a major research focus. “Kilns,” or firing facilities, should be among the various architectural features found “out back,” or located on the margins of a house lot. Kilns may have been of the trench type or free-standing small buildings, possibly within sheds, and are expected outside the perimeter formed by the main buildings of the residential group. The structures facing a plaza or series of plazas that are the most obvious elements of a single household tend to attract archaeological attention. Location of structures “out back,” or peripheral to the residential core buildings, could help define the configuration of household lots.